How this calculation works
Harvested kilograms and saleable kilograms are different quantities. Loss removes fruit before grading, and grade shares then allocate what remains. This budget keeps those stages explicit instead of multiplying every harvested kilogram by a premium price.
Gross fruit = trees × yield/tree; grade kg = gross × (1 − loss) × grade share; contribution = grade sales − packing − gross harvest cost − entered fixed costsA worked example
One hundred trees at twenty harvested kilograms give 2000 kg. Ten-percent loss leaves 1800 kg; seventy-percent A and twenty-percent B allocate 1260 and 360 kg, leaving 180 kg unallocated. The example sales are 70200 currency units and grade packing costs 7020. Subtracting 6000 harvest cost and 1000 other cost leaves 56180 of modeled operating contribution.
Good to know
Entered period budget only; no yield forecast, automatic prices, full establishment cash flow or tax/accounting determination. Use one currency and one consistent period throughout. The illustrative values are not recommended yields, prices or cost benchmarks.
Reference: Penn State — tree fruit budget context (opens in a new tab) ↗
What this calculation answers
Harvested kilograms and saleable kilograms are different quantities. Loss removes fruit before grading, and grade shares then allocate what remains. This budget keeps those stages explicit instead of multiplying every harvested kilogram by a premium price.
The calculation is a single-period scenario using your own yield and prices. It does not forecast an orchard’s growth, weather damage or future market. Its purpose is to show which mass and cost assumptions produce the entered contribution.
The Inventory FIFO FEFO expiry and demand calculator follows stored batches over time. This orchard budget estimates a harvest-and-packout period and does not model later inventory spoilage.
Use the right input conventions
Enter bearing trees and the gross harvested yield per tree. Harvest cost is charged to that gross fruit, including fruit later lost. Grade packing costs apply only to the kilograms allocated to each grade.
Grade percentages use the post-loss pool as denominator and can total less than one hundred. The remainder is displayed as unallocated fruit with zero sales, rather than silently redistributing it among profitable grades.
Interpret the result
The contribution includes only the costs you supply. It is not automatically accounting profit: land, establishment, finance, tax, family labor or capital replacement may be absent unless included appropriately in the entered period costs.
Compare a yield or grade-share change while holding the other entries fixed. A higher premium packout may improve sales, but it also changes packing cost. The table separates those effects before common harvest and fixed costs.
Work through the example
One hundred trees at twenty harvested kilograms give 2000 kg. Ten-percent loss leaves 1800 kg; seventy-percent A and twenty-percent B allocate 1260 and 360 kg, leaving 180 kg unallocated.
The example sales are 70200 currency units and grade packing costs 7020. Subtracting 6000 harvest cost and 1000 other cost leaves 56180 of modeled operating contribution.
Where the model stops
Entered period budget only; no yield forecast, automatic prices, full establishment cash flow or tax/accounting determination.
Use one currency and one consistent period throughout. The illustrative values are not recommended yields, prices or cost benchmarks.
A few questions, answered
Why is harvest cost based on more fruit than sales?
It is charged to gross harvested mass before later loss and unallocated grades.
Must grade shares total 100 percent?
No. Any unallocated post-loss fruit remains visible and earns zero sales in this model.