Pre-Harvest Checklist: Getting Your Olive Mill Ready Before the Fruit Arrives
Harvest doesn't give you a ramp-up period. One week your line is idle, the next it's running flat out for weeks straight. Whatever you haven't fixed before the first truck arrives, you'll be fixing during peak season instead - at the worst possible time.
Here's a working checklist, organized by how far out you should be doing each task.
4–6 Weeks Before Harvest
Pull last season's maintenance log and flag anything marked "monitor" or "address next season." Those notes exist for a reason - don't let them sit for a second year.
Order wear parts now, not later. Screw conveyor tiles, mechanical seals, and bearing sets all have lead times, and every supplier gets backed up once harvest season starts across the region.
Schedule professional dynamic rebalancing if your decanter had any bowl or conveyor work done last season. A machine that was fine at the end of last year isn't guaranteed to still be in balance.
Confirm your vegetable water and pomace disposal arrangements for the coming season - permits, hauling contracts, or on-site treatment capacity. This is the thing mills forget until week two of harvest, when tanks are suddenly full.
2–3 Weeks Before Harvest
Run the decanter and vertical separator empty, under load, and check: bearing temperature, vibration, noise, and dam plate height consistency.
Clean and pressure-test the malaxer jacket's temperature control system. A jacket that can't hold your target cold-extraction temperature is a quality problem waiting to show up in every batch.
Check flocculant/processing aid stock if used, and confirm dosing pump calibration - not just that it runs, but that it delivers the actual rate it's set to.
Walk the full line and physically inspect every hose, gasket, and quick-disconnect fitting. Small leaks that were tolerable in March become expensive during a 16-hour harvest shift.
1 Week Before Harvest
Do a full wet run with a small batch of early fruit if any is available, even a non-commercial trial quantity. This is your last chance to catch a problem before full volume hits.
Confirm staffing coverage for extended shifts - harvest labor planning fails more often from a staffing gap than from an equipment failure.
Stage spare parts physically on-site, not just "on order." A part that's two days out by courier might as well not exist on day three of harvest.
Brief the operating team on any settings changes from last season - differential speed adjustments, new wear protection, or process tweaks that worked well last year.
During Harvest: What to Check Every Shift
Bearing temperature and vibration at shift start and midpoint
Dam plate / weir setting consistency after any cleaning
Pomace moisture - a quick visual and feel check against your normal baseline
Malaxer temperature log against your cold-extraction target
None of this replaces a proper maintenance program - it's the short version, built for the two weeks before everything gets busy. If something on this list turns up a problem you're not sure how to fix before harvest starts, that's worth a call to your equipment supplier now, not in week three.
