Increasing demand for food and rising grain prices makes grain loss and waste reduction a topic of great concern. A fundamental question exists: why would a manager permit losses? Unfortunately, the farm manager’s role and understanding of harvest and post-harvest loss (PHL) are not well understood due to a lack of research. We argue that that policy makers and equipment manufacturers need to understand how grain loss reduction fits into the farm manager’s ‘problem’, if efficient levels of loss reduction are to occur. We conduct semi structured interviews and a statewide online survey in Mato Grosso, Brazil to better understand the role of management in harvest and post-harvest loss. The survey results: help fill the important knowledge gap about the managerial component of post-harvest loss; provide insights into loss management among farmers running large modern operations in the fast growing tropical regions of the world; and show and explain the weak motivation to reduce current levels of PHL.