🌾 Harvest, storage and selling

Harvest at the right moment

Late harvest costs you to lodging, birds, rodents and rot. Early harvest costs you drying and grade deductions.

• Maize: black layer at the kernel base means physiological maturity; then dry down to safe moisture.
• Soyabean and beans: harvest as soon as pods are dry, ideally in the morning to reduce shattering.
• Groundnuts: lift when the inside of the shell is veined and dark; dry on windrows off the ground.
• Wheat: harvest promptly at maturity — rain on a ripe crop drops your grade fast.
• Buy or borrow a moisture meter; guessing costs more than the meter.

Cut post-harvest losses

Handling is where quiet losses happen. Every extra transfer, every wet night and every hole in a bag takes a share of your crop.

• Set combine speed, drum speed and sieves for the crop — check the grain tank for cracks and unthreshed heads.
• Never dry or shell on bare soil; use a tarpaulin, slab or crib.
• Dry to the target moisture before bagging, not after.
• Use clean, undamaged bags and stack on pallets, away from the wall.
• Grade out broken, discoloured and foreign matter — grade determines price.

Store safely

Grain stores well only when it is dry, cool and protected. Aflatoxin and weevil damage are the two losses buyers reject outright.

• Clean and treat the store before grain goes in; remove last season's residue.
• Use an approved grain protectant at the labelled rate, or hermetic bags and silos where available.
• Keep the store ventilated, rodent-proofed and dark.
• Inspect monthly: feel for heat, sieve a sample for insects, smell for mustiness.
• Never store maize you suspect of aflatoxin with clean grain, and never feed it to livestock.

Sell with a plan

Decide your break-even price before harvest and sell in tranches. Chasing a peak with the whole crop is a gamble, not a strategy.

• Know your cost per tonne — that is your floor.
• Sell in two or three tranches through the season instead of all at once.
• Compare buyers on net price after transport, moisture and grade deductions.
• Weigh and record every load; get a signed delivery note every time.
• Watch the market: FarmInvest shows live Joburg Market prices and Zimbabwe outlooks so you sell on data.

Next in the farming cycle

• 🌍 Land and land preparation
• 🚜 Equipment and mechanisation
• 🌱 Crop choice and planting
• 🧪 Inputs: fertiliser and chemicals

Crop guides

• 🌽 Maize
• 🍂 Flue-cured Tobacco
• 🫘 Soyabean
• 🥜 Groundnuts
• 🍅 Tomatoes
• 🫛 Sugar Beans