USDA Summarizes ’09 Pecan Crop; Average Grower Price Increases

Even though the 2009 pecan crop was 100 million pounds larger than the 2008 crop, according to USDA, the average price paid to the grower went up by three cents per in-shell pound. Most industry sources attribute this to the strong demand from the Chinese export market for pecans. The strong prices were limited to…

Pecan growers can now use the web to predict pecan nut casebearer activity in their orchards and track casebearer activity across the state. The PNCforecast system is available online from Texas AgriLife Extension Service and can be accessed here. The PNCforecast system helps growers plan when to scout the orchard for first generation casebearer eggs…

USDA’s end of February report indicates that cold storage holdings of pecans grew during February from 224 to 235 million pounds, in-shell basis. That makes the end of February number this year (235 million) just slightly below the end-of-February total in 2009 (239 million). When broken down into shelled and in-shell categories, there were approximately…

Pecan exports to China doubled in 2009 compared to 2008 and have increased about 860 percent since 2006 (see Fig. 1). Prices for improved varieties increased this past, high-production season. Price improvement during a high production year is very rare due to the counter cyclical nature of production and prices (see Fig. 2). The price…

ATLANTA, Ga. – Almost every major sheller in the pecan industry was represented at the 2009 NPSA Mid-Winter Meeting, February 26-28 at the Gaylord Palms resort in Kissimmee, FL. Two days of educational programming featured experts on government affairs, consumer trends, supply chain management, resource conservation, plant management, shipping and logistics, food safety and quality control. Members…

As we start a new decade, the people in the pecan industry have as much optimism as I can ever remember, and with good reason. Prices have been good for the grower and for the sheller. Consumption is high and with the industry going into an “off” year, supplies will likely continue at a level…

It was a long cold winter. When the weather finally broke with a warm spell in mid-March, I decided to enjoy a moment of warm sunshine to walk the grove. This has become a sort of annual tradition with me, looking over the trees and reflecting on all the things we did right and all…

It is hard to believe that the 2010 season is just around the corner and with the start of this new season comes a Texas pecan tradition — the county pecan field day. These field days held during the spring across the state offer producers the chance to hear the latest in horticultural practices, IPM,…

NPSA requests support for Marketing, Promotion and Research Program ATLANTA – The National Pecan Shellers Association’s Marketing, Promotion and Research Committee thanks the 65 pecan growers (companies, individuals and state/regional associations) who contributed more than $165,000 last year to the industry’s only national program designed to expand the market for pecans. The Marketing, Promotion and…

DuPont Crop Protection recently announced an innovative application to help customers—a “TankMix App,” created for iPhone and iTouch users. The DuPont Information Technology’s (IT) Innovation Office, under the leadership of John Puckett, director, IT innovation, sponsored the project. The TankMix App provides basic math calculations for the amount of product and water needed per tank…

The National Pecan Shellers Association gathered for its Mid-Winter Meeting, Feb. 18-20, in New Orleans just as the city was winding down from a two-week celebration encompassing Mardi Gras and a Super Bowl victory for the Saints. However, some of the shellers were not feeling very victorious about their 2009 pecan-buying season as export markets…

The drought of this past year and previous years is but a distant memory today in most folk’s minds as many completed harvest in and around rain events. It is hard to believe exactly how dry 2009 really was. When you get to doubting how dry it really was, all you need to do is…

When pecan trees crowd they should be cut down, attached to a tractor with a chain, pulled to an open space, cut into small pieces, piled, allowed to dry for one year, and burned. This is a simple operation. A team of 3 men can thin one acre per day if trunks are less than…

In the Southeast, the number one enemy of pecans is the fungus disease pecan scab. Growers were painfully reminded in the 2009 season of the severity and damage caused by this disease. In 2007, an on-year crop but a very dry season, Georgia produced 150 million pounds of pecans. In 2009, an on-year crop but…

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC, February 17, 201—Growers using Headline® fungicide may be eligible to receive $75 per gallon back on purchases from authorized BASF retailers made by May 15, 2010. “Growers always want to get the most out of every acre,” said Reed Barrett, Market Manager for BASF. “In these economic times, it’s also important to…

Change is inevitable. As General Eric Shinseki, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army once noted, “If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.” During the last century, the pecan industry has experienced a number of changes — the change from hand to mechanical cracking, the grafting of better-yielding varieties, the introduction of…

By way of some background information, we started renovating or converting many of our old orchards to new varieties as many as 20 years ago. The orchards we are farming were planted in the early 20th century, around 1920, give or take. Of course, without the fertilizer, pest control and irrigation methods of today, they…

Well, we made it through Christmas and we rang in a new year, although I’m sure a few were sleeping when the ball fell in Times Square. This year we not only started a new year but a new decade as well. Some of the events of the last decade included multiple hurricanes, record drought,…

Kenneth Pape of Seguin, Texas, may have the largest collection of nutcrackers in the world and his collection is now showcased in his Nutcracker Museum, one of the biggest attractions in this small town about 30 miles east of San Antonio. Seguin is rich in pecan tradition and the Pape family is responsible for much…

As pecan growers enter the 2010 pecan year, it is good to outline management practices that may need to be used and develop plans. The 2007, 2008 and 2009 early markets were less than ideal as far as prices to grower. The 2009 crop started out great, but 4 months of drought followed by way…

This is a topic I have written about several times in the past for this column, but every year I receive questions concerning the use of dormant oils on pecan so I will rerun again. Horticultural oils have been used in agriculture for over 100 years to control various soft bodied insects such as scale,…

We are considered to be a small grower. We have a ‘Maramec’ orchard that produced slightly over 20,000 pounds in 2009 with a potential of 40,000 pounds annually when the smaller trees mature. Although small, I take pecan production very seriously. Our orchard is primarily random. I began grafting existing sprouts in 1979. The annual…

An annual application of fertilizer is one practice that separates intensively managed commercial pecan orchards from many native groves and dooryard plantings. Pecan trees will bear nuts with no supplemental fertilizer in many of those settings, and occasionally will make fantastic crops, but producing pecans consistently and profitably requires that the nutritional needs of the…

We are into February now and many of us did not really finish harvest and clean up until at least mid-January if not later. This creates a short off season for us to do those things in the orchard that we need to before spring comes. With all the chill hours that the eastern part…