Pecan Industry Sees Record High Grower, Meat Prices

Demand for pecans has been at an all-time high this season with U.S. growers enjoying record high prices for in-shell product. Export demand from China has continued to be a significant factor in the pecan market in 2010. Growers have been paid over $5.00, point basis, for large top-quality pecans in recent weeks — that…

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Marion Wilkerson “Bud” Luckey Jr. passed away Dec. 6, 2010 at University Hospital in Augusta. He was born Feb. 13, 1944. Bud Luckey was well known throughout the pecan industry. He began working in the pecan industry as a teenager at Tracy-Luckey Co. of Harlem, Georgia. During his career as a “pecan…

It is now early January, the crop is in and thoughts turn, hopefully, to what went wrong last year and how I can correct it this coming season. I have seen a couple of articles in the past month that have tried to fix the reason or reasons for the poor crop in the eastern part…

Cecil and Kay Crabtree of Crabtree Pecans in Denison, Texas are sending their business name around the world in 2011 — on the side of an antique car entered in World Race 2011. This is a re-creation of the Greatest Auto Race of 1908, leaving New York City on April 15, 2011 and arriving in…

Pecan trees LOVE the light. That’s really all there is to it. In their native habitat, young pecan trees can rapidly grow to great heights if given a nice patch of sunlight — then once they’ve surpassed all the other surrounding trees in height, they’ve got it made in the sun, so to speak. But…

During 2010 the Texas pecan IPM program teamed with Juan Lopez, USDA-ARS Southern Plains Research Station, to submit a proposal to the EPA Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program for funds to develop information relating to use patterns of imidacloprid-based insecticides to tolerance/resistance in black-margined pecan aphids, Monellia caryella. Lopez is a research entomologist with USDA- ARS and although his…

The Chinese appetite for pecans has placed a spotlight on our crop, which is increasing in popularity. This has led to a pecan acreage increase in Georgia, which from the phone calls and visits I have had, does not appear to be subsiding. Pecan nurseries have been unable to provide enough trees to keep up…

The pecan show is underway throughout Texas, with 26 county or multi-county shows representing approximately 45 counties. Four regional shows are held in mid-December and the state competition takes place at the TPGA conference in July 2011. Each year the state show identifies the Grand Champion native entry with the best combination of size and…

As I write this in mid-November, it is apparent that there are major problems with the pecan crop in the Southeast. Quality is poor to mediocre with ‘Desirable’, and not so good on other cultivars either. Harvest is delayed, and shucks opened late on most cultivars, especially ‘Stuart’. The problems with quality and delayed shuck…

Riding the crest of recent export demand for pecans, the U.S. pecan industry has united to pursue and be granted $200,000 in Market Access Program (MAP) funds from USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. The funding will be utilized in 2011 to promote pecans in several foreign markets including China, India, Europe and Dubai.   Additionally, the…

The 2010 pecan year at the Texas A&M pecan orchard had some good and not so good results. We finished removing trees in the Storey block with a 50-by-50 spacing for 25-year-old trees. The stumps did not all die, so we still have to take out stumps for about 30 trees. We had a good…

The older I get, the more respect I have for the durability of our native groves. Wind, floods, drought, freezing temperatures, and ice storms have all pummeled our native groves. But following every natural disaster, native groves recover and grow back into productivity. Sure, we lose some trees along the way, but our younger native…

It is now the middle of November and it has become quite obvious that this is the year of the crop that never was in the Southeast. Never again will I forget the old adage that “a short crop gets shorter”. I am going to tattoo that on my forehead. I do believe that we…

During this past summer, my summer intern and I observed an isolated outbreak of leaf miners for which at this time I do not have an explanation. The infestation ran south on Hwy 50 from where Hwy. 50 joins Hwy. 79 in Robertson County to Hwy. 21 then continued south on 50 to the Hwy….

Research and Extension programs on pecans need your direction and support. A planning conference has been scheduled for Feb. 13-15, 2011 at the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Oklahoma. Industry representatives have been invited to establish research and Extension priorities in a) production, b) processing and distribution, and c) consumer and retail markets. The industry…

New Mexico State University’s Leyendecker Plant Science Center in Las Cruces was the setting for the 2010 New Mexico Pecan Growers’ Field Day on Nov. 4. The annual conference was organized by the New Mexico Pecan Growers and co-sponsored by NMSU’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; the New Mexico Department of Agriculture; and…

The Storey block in the Texas A&M orchard had a good ‘Pawnee’ crop in 2010 and it follows the good crop of last year. The set on outside, well-spaced trees was so great we decided to shake in late July to help reduce stress, improve kernel filling, and hopefully get a third crop in a…

King Ranch Inc. announced on Oct. 6 that it has acquired the name and substantially all of the assets of Southwest Nut Co. The newly acquired assets include a pecan processing and shelling plant and related equipment in Fabens, Texas and substantially all of the equipment in a second plant located in Juarez, Mexico. Robert…

Harvest began in Georgia in early October with ‘Pawnees’, moving on to ‘Creek’ and ‘Elliott’ around mid month. ‘Stuarts’ and ‘Desirables’ as well as other varieties followed in the latter half of the month. Because of my lead time in writing this, I cannot give you much in the way of current quality or price…

Several thousand acres of new pecan trees have been planted in Arizona over the past five years and several thousand more will likely go in during the next couple of years. Enough new pecan acreage has been or will be planted to boost the state’s production by 10-15 million pounds — if all current established…

While pecan operations are a familiar sight throughout South Georgia, Trey Pippin’s farm near Arlington, Georgia has a unique feature that sets it apart from the others — a one-acre plot covered with 836 solar panels that are generating the equivalent of 310,000 kilowatt hours of energy annually. It is the largest privately-owned commercial solar…

All microorganisms require water and other nutrients to grow. In the absence of one or both, microbial cells will die or go into a dormant, non-reproductive state. Molds generally require less moisture to grow than do bacteria. Hence the need to reduce the moisture content of in-shell pecan kernels as well as shelled nutmeats to…

Three generations and millions and millions of pecans later, Bergeron’s Pecans of New Roads, Louisiana, celebrated on Sept. 5 the 100th anniversary of the family-owned and operated shelling business. Hundreds of friends and community members filled False River Country Club for the occasion, including Louisiana State Rep. Major Thibaut and Sheriff Bud Torres as wells Louisiana…

Pecan cleaners can be psychologically depressing machines. With air-legs, blowers and conveyors, they can create large piles of light weight and defective nuts as the harvested crop passes through them. Oh sure, they work great, and technological advances have given growers and accumulators better capability to sort out defective nuts and improve the quality of…