1. The two numbers every plucking day argues about
On a wet day, two questions decide what a plucker is paid and what the factory receives:
- How much of the weight is water? Rain on leaf, or dew from an early pick, adds weight that is not leaf.
- How much of the leaf is fine? Tender shoots are worth more in the factory than coarse leaf, and some estates check the share in a sample.
Paper handles both with a clerk's judgment written on a slip. The judgment is often correct. The problem is that nobody can trace it later.
2. Rainfall deductions as configured slabs
The estate defines deduction slabs in advance: which percentage applies in which conditions. During weighing, the supervisor selects the slab that matches the day:
- Gross weight arrives from the scale, linked to the verified worker.
- Bag or basket tare is subtracted as configured.
- The day's rainfall or moisture slab is applied as a percentage.
- Net weight is saved on the record, showing the gross weight and the slab used.
Every worker that day goes through the same rule. When the office or the factory reviews the record, the deduction is a line item with a source, not a memory.
3. Fine leaf checks on the record
Where the estate requires it, the supervisor checks fine leaf as a sample count at the configured sample size. The result saves with the harvest record, next to the weight:
- Quality follows the section. Fine leaf counts per section show which lines pluck tender and which lines strip.
- Payment rules stay honest. Where the estate ties quality to rates, the check sits on the same record as the weight that earned the rate.
- The factory sees what it will receive. A day's fine leaf profile reaches the office with the leaf, instead of being guessed at the withering trough.
4. Why recording both ends the dispute
The wet leaf argument is rarely about bad faith. It is about a number that exists only in one person's memory. When gross weight, tare, slab, and fine leaf all sit on the record, the plucker can be shown the same lines the office sees. Disputes move from "he wrote less" to "this was the day's slab", and the second conversation is short.