Harvest is likely the single largest expense on your specialty crop operation. Labor accounts for 40 to 60 percent of total production costs, depending on your crop and region. When that much money and effort rides on every bin, how you record the harvest determines your inventory accuracy, traceability, labor costs, and compliance readiness through the rest of the year.

Harvest is likely the single largest expense on your farm. Labor accounts for 40 to 60 percent of total crop production costs, depending on your crop and region. When that kind of money is riding on every bucket, every bin, and every bushel, you need a clear line of sight into what each picker is doing and what it costs.

May is the pre-harvest planning window. Your full seasonal workforce hasn't arrived yet. Your field map still has time to be corrected. This is precisely the moment to set up your piece-rate structure in Croptracker, so when the first crew shows up with a full bucket, you already know who picked it, what block it came from, and exactly how much it cost.

Croptracker connects individual picker performance to inventory traceability to profitability — in one platform, on one mobile app, from field to office.

Specialty crop growers are in the midst of a long transition period, moving from a historic reliance on synthetic agrochemicals, towards more dynamic approaches like Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Orchardists and apple growers in particular have been at the forefront of this shift, being some of the first to adopt biological treatments like pheromone sprays.

In the apple industry, the move towards biologicals is not just a response to environmental advocacy, but is a calculated adaptation due to an evolving regulatory landscape; a growing consumer demand for “residue free”produce; and increasing agrochemical and fertilizer costs. When used well, IPM strategies, including biological treatments, can help growers reduce traditional treatment costs and increase yield and quality.

This article will detail the types of biologicals most commonly used in apple orchards, the regulations covering their use in Canada, and how Croptracker can help growers make the most of their biological applications.

For most fresh produce growers right now, the pressure to protect already slim profit margins is high. In apples in particular, overproduction and staggering labour costs mean that no path to revenue protection can be ignored. One of the avenues our growers are increasingly headed down to help secure their profit is closer picker quality management.

With the risks of improperly handled harvest so high, the time spent training, monitoring and correcting picker performance is worth it. In this use case article, we will detail the why and how of defect monitoring at harvest for better post harvest management, higher pack-out rates and ultimately more return to the grower.