Abstract: The present invention concerns a method of operating a plant product processing arrangement that is operative to process a plurality of plant product objects. The plant processing arrangement has an input, an output and processing, detecting, conveying and sorting equipment therebetween. The method includes initially establishing at least one operational plan, the at least one operational plan defining short term operational parameters and controlling processing facility operations, including plant product detection, conveying, sorting and takeout at said output. The method further includes establishing an enhanced or “reference” plan, the reference plan defining long term value-related parameters. Then, the method involves processing plant product objects according to at least one operational plan from plant product input through plant product takeout and detecting measurable parametric characteristics of each of the plant product objects during the processing step.