Understanding Managing Harvest Estimates

Many growers harvest their crop over a period. For example, avocados are continuously harvested over a period of two years. Growers should estimate and schedule how much of the crop to harvest during each time period. An overestimation of the total crop volume may result in a large financial loss to the grower because of the uneven shipment spread. A grower might anticipate a record crop volume and therefore ship large quantities early in the harvest cycle. If the overall estimate is lower than anticipated, not enough crop is available to harvest later on in the harvest cycle.

This diagram represents several blocks of broccoli, and each block has two separate harvest dates and estimated quantities: