Harvesting time is very important for optimum cane and sugar yield. Optimum time of harvesting for early maturing variety is from 15th November and for a mid-late variety it should be from first week of January. The age of the seed crop may be around 9 to 10 months at harvest. The implements used for harvesting must be sharp. These should be minimum time gap between harvest and planting.
Method of harvesting:
    In Bihar cane is generally harvested by village grass cutter on green top basis or by hired labourers with hand axe.
Staling time:
    Post-harvest deterioration of cane occurs mainly due to wider gap between harvesting to crushing. In general, the time gap between harvesting to crushing is more than 48 hours. This leads to lower extraction percentage.
Proportion of extranaceous matter:
    Due to absence of factory supervisory staff at the time of harvesting and loading, considerable amount of extraneous matter reach to factory for crushing, which drop the recovery percentage to greater extent.