Harvest Practices

Basic Preparation Requirements

The harvesting of produce is the final process in the production cycle, and one of the most important. If the harvest is not well-planned and well-managed, it may lead to damage to produce that has been produced at a high cost, especially in the case of fresh produce such as fruit and vegetables. Other produce, such as grains and seeds, are less easily damaged. In the case of livestock, the animals can become stressed and/or damaged during the harvesting/transporting process.

The basic requirements for preparing for the harvesting process are:

• Crop estimates
• Management
• Equipment
• Workforce

Crop Estimates

The basis for calculating equipment and labour needed to harvest the crop within the normal harvesting/picking period of each cultivar is an accurate crop estimate.

The estimate must, apart from crop volume, also indicate projected size spread per cultivar, external quality and time of ripening.

Internal quality development towards harvest must be monitored from about six to eight weeks before the estimated harvesting date to confirm or adjust earlier predictions.

Management

Training: All supervisors and workers must be trained before harvesting to ensure that the correct methods are used during the picking process. It is important that both the supervisors and workers are at the same level of understanding of why the picking process must be done in a certain manner and what the negative effects of deviation would be.

Quality Management: Systems must be devised to monitor that the produce is harvested with the correct internal and external quality standards. This dictates that samples must be taken and analysed well before harvesting, and the quality standards must be monitored up to harvesting.

Monitoring Systems for All Actions: The actual harvesting process must be done as prescribed and must be carefully monitored. It is important that the Eurepgap requirements for information regarding all aspects involved in picking are met. These would include training before and during harvesting, produce quality monitoring, rate of harvesting and transport.

Equipment

All the equipment needed for the harvesting process must be examined beforehand to ensure that it is in good condition and that it is sufficient. Equipment may include:

• Tractors
• Trailers
• Bins, ladders, clippers, picking bags and picking gloves for the fruit and vegetable grower
• Mechanised harvesting equipment

Sufficient ablution facilities must be available for the additional workers that are employed during the harvesting period.

Workforce

The number of harvest workers and supervisors required is calculated on the basis of the crop estimate, taking into account the period in which the harvesting must be completed for each cultivar.

Harvesting Systems

The harvesting system of the enterprise depends on what is being grown what should happen to the produce during the harvesting process. For example, there is a vast difference between how fresh apples are dealt with, compared with grains and seeds.

Pre-Harvest Actions

The pre-harvest actions may (depending on the enterprise) include the following:

• Final estimation of total crop
• Comparing internal and external quality with marketing standards
• Sourcing and training of supervisors and harvesters
• Medical examination of all workers to be involved in the picking operation
• Issuing new overalls to all pickers
• Preparing and cleaning picking equipment
• Harvesting/picking process
• The harvest/picking process may (depending on the enterprise) include the following:
• Decide which picking method to use, i.e. clippers or snap-picking
• Daily inspection of cleanliness and condition of ladders, clippers and picking bags
• Inspection of fingernails of pickers, which must be short to prevent injuries to fruit
• Ensuring that enough drinking water is available
• Monitoring hygiene standards, e.g. washing of hands after visiting the toilet
• Ensuring that turgid (wet from dew, rain or high humidity) fruit is not picked to prevent pressure bruising (Oleocellosis)
• Monitoring by supervisors of general picking and handling of fruit from the tree to the bin
• Inspection of fruit as picking bags are emptied when picking out on colour
• Ensuring that picking bags are emptied carefully so as not to cause injuries to the fruit
• Ensuring that fruit does not have long stems after picking
• Ensuring that bins or trailers are not overfilled before transport
• Monitoring the removal of all fallen and/or decayed fruit from orchards after picking

Transport to Accumulation Point or Packhouse

In the case of produce that can be easily damaged, harvested produce must be transported from the growing area to a packhouse at a moderate speed to prevent injuries or bruising. If this is the case, then the roads that will be used should be graded to prevent unnecessary wear and tear on transport vehicles and equipment which can lead to injuries and bruising to the produce.

Transport at high speeds on gravel roads causes dust to settle on the produce which leads to injuries and small injuries can lead to infection by pathogens and result in decay.