Cutters, lorry, ramp: what a harvest round really pays after labour

The price per tonne is only half the picture on a harvest day. Everything that has to happen between a cut bunch and a weighed load costs something, and it comes off before you see a net figure — assuming you’re tracking it at all.

The costs between palm and ramp

• Cutter wages — typically paid per tonne or per day, whichever the arrangement is with your workers.
• In-field transport — moving cut bunches from the palm to a collection point, often a separate cost from the main haul if the lot is large or the terrain is difficult.
• Lorry / haul to the mill or ramp — fuel and driver, or a hired lorry’s rate.
• Loading and handling at the ramp, if not included in the lorry arrangement.

A worked round

Where costs disappear if you don’t log them

Cutter wages and lorry costs on harvest day are easy to pay in cash and never write down — which means the 18% in the example above simply vanishes from the record, and every month’s income looks larger than it actually was. Logging harvest-day costs against the same round as the income they belong to is what turns a gross sales figure into an actual profit-per-round number; see our profit-per-acre guide for the fuller picture across a month.

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