Production Practices and Processes Affecting Product Quality

The following practices have a great influence on product quality:

Nutrition

This is the single most important factor determining the quality of the product being produced. The higher the input, the better the quality of the product. The stock farmer must remember to draw a link between the cost of feed or feed supplements like licks and the increase that it creates in terms of quantity and quality of product produced.

Treatment of Hooves

The hooves of animals should regularly be attended to, as lameness; due to hoof abnormalities may be detrimental to the grazing ability of the animal. The condition of the animal deteriorates and secondary infections such as foot rot may result.

Dehorning of Cattle

The dehorning of cattle is recommended for various reasons; viz-polled animals cannot injure each other, especially in kraals, at dipping tanks, at drinking and feeding troughs and in railway tracks. Losses due to wounds and bruises inflicted by sharp horns are avoided. Bruised meat on carcasses usually acquired by horn blows during transport is condemned for human consumption at abattoirs daily, leading to losses amounting to thousands of rand annually.

Castrations

Male animals are castrated for various reasons. Castrations can be performed at any age, but preferably when the animal is still young (especially sheep, calves and pigs).

Advantages of castrations:

• In certain species of animals e.g., sheep and goats, the carcass of a mature male animal tend to have an offensive smell. This is not the case with castrated animals of the same species.
• Castrated animals tend to be more placid and therefore gain weight more readily. Handling of these animals is also facilitated.
• Propagation of a poor type of animal is prevented.

Docking of Tails

Advantages:

The docking of tails in sheep is necessitated because filth and dung accumulate under the tail (especially when diarrhoea occurs) thus aggravating the blowfly menace if present. Tails should be docked at a young age to lessen the shock. Lambing percentages will increase, as the tails of ewes do not interfere with the process of mating. Sheep with docked tails, due to their stocky appearance, are also more acceptable to butchers.

In citrus, a broad division can be made between factors affecting fruit quality caused by pests and diseases, and the physiological and/or cosmetic quality problems brought about by the effects of climate, nutrition and irrigation. In this section, the focus is on the physiological factors although similar principles are applicable to pest and disease factors.

In citrus production, each phase in fruit development is influenced by the preceding phases and influences the following phase. The phases are:

The crop can be manipulated in various ways including fertilisation and irrigation, pruning, thinning (by hand and chemically), girdling, hormone application (to reduce flowering, increase fruit set, extend the harvest season, and extend the shelf-life of the fruit), fruit acid reduction and fruit colour improvement.

In the table below is a typical management schedule, in this case for easy-peeler production in the northern areas of the country. The table indicates the timing of various treatments to achieve desired fruit set, fruit size and quality.

The citrus production manager should create such a management schedule for each of the citrus cultivars he produces. Over time, a database of the specific treatments and treatment timings applied annually to achieve a premium quality product should be developed. In this way,, the risks attached to the production of high-quality fruit will be systematically reduced.

Management Schedule

The Impact of Various Procedures and Practices on Product Quality

For the purpose of explaining some of the practices which impact product quality, it is necessary to understand the fundamental interactions between the environment, tree growth and fruiting.

Certain factors or conditions, either alone or in combination, gives rise to strong and vigorous vegetative growth in the tree. Such factors would include warm day and night temperatures, sufficient water, young tree age, high levels of nitrogen, no nutrient deficiencies, and the absence of root or leaf diseases.

When trees grow vigorously the quality of the fruit is usually poor. Fruit colour is slow to develop, the sugar content is low, and the fruit has an insipid taste due to low acid levels. Fruit is usually too large, have coarse rinds, and tree yields are only fair.

In animal or livestock production there are a number of factors that may have an influence on the quality of a product. Climate, feed and certain actions performed by growers such as branding of animals, dehorning, application of pour-on for parasites and the injection of growth hormones are but a view to mention.

Cost/Benefit Analysis for Quality Improvement Processes

The term cost/benefit analysis is used frequently in business planning and decision support activities. According to this source, the term does not refer to any specific approach or methodology but usually implies a study to provide some form of financial justification for an action. Financial justification is a business-case analysis that helps the production manager to decide whether or not to proceed with a proposed action.

In deciding which quality improvement processes to employ, the production manager should conduct some form of cost/benefit analysis to determine whether the cost of implementing a specific action is financially justifiable.

The nature of the analysis would depend on the manager’s ability to quantify the cost of the planned treatment against the financial benefit accruing from the action.

It is relatively easy to accurately estimate the cost of a prospective treatment, whether this is a chemical spray, pruning or the implementation of an amended fertilisation or irrigation schedule. In relation, a livestock production manager must also adapt his practices to achieve the best quality product in the end with the most effective interventions like feed supplements at the lowest possible cost. This may include time scheduling for medication etc. that is within the prescribed timeframe before slaughtering, changes in infrastructure to reduce physical damage to animals etc.

Estimating the financial benefit that could arise from the chosen treatment or treatment combination is usually less precise. This is because the quality of the final product is the result of a number of interacting factors, some of which are out of the control of the manager, such as climatic conditions.

The recommended approach is to use past records as an indication of the potential financial losses that could be incurred from quality defects or to estimate the cost of non-compliance to the relevant market standards.

Actions to Address Quality Problems

The need for remedial actions, or interventions, to address quality problems is closely related to the inherent suitability of the site and climate to the production of the chosen commodity. Production on marginal areas or on marginal soils requires more intervention than those established under more suitable circumstances.

For example, access to EU markets depends on the ability of the grower to demonstrate the absence of any symptoms of diseases that may depreciate the product at the time of inspection. This is more easily achievable in some areas than in others. Therefore, the cost of production in respect to areas that are more exposed to these negative factors will be higher.

Research has provided a wide range of remedial actions to address practically all circumstances that can give rise to quality defects in the final product. However, the challenge is to produce products with minimum intervention so as to keep production costs low and ensure a more economically and ecologically sustainable enterprise.