Contract grading - Boom or bust

Contract grading of over a million seedlings was accomplished with few complications. Production rates and cull percentages were very similar to the work done by the Nursery crews. Contract grading was about $1.46/M higher than force account grading. Lucky Peak Nursery has contracted seedling lifting for many years. In November of 1981, over one million seedlings were contract graded. As in many organizations, personnel limitations are becoming a stark reality. For the last two years, Lucky Peak Nursery has had a ceiling of 25 work-years with which to operate the nursery. It takes us approximately 6.09 work-years to grade and pack 0 million seedlings. Since we are using about one fourth of our ceiling allotment for grading, we felt a need to see if we could contract grade to free some work-years for other nursery projects. Indications are that our work-year ceilings will be going down in the future. Contract labor does not go against our work-year ceiling. Contract grading had been discussed off and on at Lucky Peak for at least the last four years. Each time it reared its head, we decided there was no way it could be done. We felt that we could not handle the various grading specifications needed for our operation. During the summer of 1981, while discussing contracting, Don Wermlinger (Assistant Nurseryman) and I decided to "give it a go." This first decision was made with a "can do" attitude and this was probably the most important aspect of the whole contract. The feeling that "we can do it" had the support and conviction of most of the staff at Lucky Peak.

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Details

Author(s): Richard H. Thatcher

Publication: National Nursery Proceedings - 1982

Event: Western Nurserymen's Conference
1982 - Medford, OR