Observations from the Orchard on Regenerative Agriculture
“I’m not going back,” I told myself as I drove up to my pecan barns in late July. The trees looked good with a strong nut set and were much less stressed than last year despite the 103-plus F temperatures we experienced the last few months. We had no rain recently, and the dryland row...
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Resources for Pecan Growers to Overcome Financial Challenges
With the start of the fall season just around the corner, pecan growers are looking forward to the 2023 harvest. Growers have had to contend with extreme heat, disease pressure from pecan scab, bacteria in the more humid climates, and damage from insects. And that’s on top of a historically unpredictable market where interest rates...
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Pecans in Mexico
For the first time, in 2019, Mexico produced more pecans than the United States. Part of this was due to the damage of Hurricane Michael in 2018. However, with new plantings coming into production in Mexico, the two countries will continue to be competitors, producing more than 90% of the world market. Pecans originated in...
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5th Annual Harvest Photo Contest Entries
We had so many fantastic entries for our 5th Annual Harvest Photo Contest that we couldn’t help but share them all with you. Participants were able to submit photos from October 15, 2022, to Jan. 11, 2023. The winning photo—featured at the top of this article—appeared on the cover of our February 2023 magazine. Thank you...
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What a Low-Cost Drone Can Do for Your Orchard
The pecan sector in Argentina is growing fast. However, this rapid growth of the industry (mainly due to an increase in planted area) is not yet fully accompanied by the massive adoption of new technologies, in part because many Argentine farmers are not yet completely sure about the applications of, for example, robotic devices such...
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A “Little Guy” Story—our journey starting a small pecan orchard
The Little Guy Definition The 2017 USDA Agriculture Census1 reported that approximately 10% of U.S. pecans for sale are produced on less than 50-acre farms, yet these smaller farms comprise the majority in number count. If you are that “Little Guy,” your voice may not speak with a large volume, but it still is important....
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4th Annual Harvest Photo Contest Entries
We had so many fantastic entries for our 4th Annual Harvest Photo Contest that we couldn’t help but share them all with you. Participants were able to submit photos from October 15, 2021, to Jan. 11, 2022. The winning photo—featured at the top of this article—appeared on the cover of our February 2022 magazine. Thank...
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Tax law changes incorporated in the American Families Plan
President Joe Biden’s proposed tax plan, dubbed the American Families Plan, has undergone multiple negotiations changes. On Sept. 13, 2021, the House Ways and Means Committee released proposed legislation, most of which will most likely take effect after Jan. 1, 2022. The only piece of the legislation that took immediate effect was the change in...
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Brazil aims to be among the top pecan producers in the next 20 years
Although native to the United States, the pecan continues to gain popularity in different countries around the world, especially in South America, where agro-ecological conditions result in a natural environment for growing this nut. As we have already seen in Argentina, an incipient but promising pecan industry is developing with great potential in this region....
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Is your retirement election-proof?
The election is over, and the stakes have rarely felt higher. The new administration is underway, and the usual political debate rages on between family and friends. To what degree can we learn from new economic data and make financial decisions? Should we delay our retirement date based on what we think will happen? Should we...
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IC-DISC & Lowering Your Business’ Tax Burden
Clients routinely ask us, “What can I do to lower the tax burden from my business?” Generally, the answer falls into the category of increasing expenses or investing more money into their business. However, in certain circumstances, the Tax Code allows for specific tax planning to aid businesses in certain areas. One such area is...
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The Relentless Menace of the Wild Hog
Martin Mount has taken the same dirt track into his family’s pecan grove since he was a little boy. His great-grandfather worked another man’s pecan orchard, but Mount’s grandfather bought his own property beside the Deep Fork River in 1939. With a cross-cut saw, an axe, and homemade tree poison, his granddad spent years clearing...
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A Strong Case for Upgrading Trucks
Food distributors are increasingly realizing the need to upgrade the trucks in their transportation fleet more frequently by replacing older, less efficient units that cost more to operate and produce harmful emissions. Without question, newer, eco-efficient trucks deliver significant savings in fuel and maintenance costs. According to the most recent truck lifecycle data index, food distribution...
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Passing on a Pecan Farm from Generation to Generation
You have done all the right things. You invested in a seedling or a grafted tree that has turned into a producing tree, into an orchard. You have built an asset that will live on for generations. Now, how do you ensure that asset gets passed on to the next generation without being destroyed? Given...
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From Personal Experience, Some Tips for Launching a New Website
People often ask me how we sell our pecans. Are we predominantly selling wholesale, through our retail store or through our website? We find that for us we have to have a presence in each avenue. But a large portion of our sales still come through our website. We launched our first website in 2002....
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Unleashing the Scarecrows
Crows belong to the genus Corvus, which is also the family that includes blue jays. Although there are probably more than forty species of crows, the ones that make life difficult for Oklahoma pecan growers are American Crows, and growers east of the Mississippi may also encounter Fish Crows. But a crow is a crow...
Read moreMaking Adjustments to Your Pecan Operation
No two years are the same. I heard this statement growing up, and now that I have lived a little life I can say I’ve seen this play out in my own life. It’s certainly a versatile saying with many variables, but perhaps its meaning is most applicable to farmers and small business owners. For...
Read moreMixing Business with Pleasure
Kids across America are in great anticipation this month. The weight of school responsibilities has worn their welcome thin, and it’s about all teachers can do to keep their students’ attention for the next several weeks. I’m certainly not a teacher, but I can sympathize with the struggle they are facing. After all, I’m facing...
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Another Generation, Another Chance to Pass on Pecan Traditions
I don’t know about you, but springtime gets me all worked up. I welcome the change in weather with open arms, and something about this seasonal change builds my enthusiasm. To me, digging in the dirt and reorganizing my home are synonymous with spring. It’s a chance to get things accomplished with a fresh, new...
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Finding Beauty in Pecan Ashes
Sometimes failure hits you when you least expect it. When it does, I believe it’s important to seek beauty in the ashes. That was the case for us in May as we sought to find beauty from pecan ashes. I wish that was a symbolic term, but unfortunately, it’s not. If there is one thing...
Read moreBig Data for farming: a boon to all or a boondoggle?
After almost 50 years of being on the farm at all hours of the day and all days of the year, regardless of weather or holidays or vacations, I must admit I am a bit skeptical of all the claims being made for all kinds of different data gathering programs, all kinds of fertilizers, additives,...
Read moreAPC Must Do a Little With a Lot
While I am sure most of you are aware of it, the American Pecan Council, established by the Federal Marketing Order, has largely been put in place with a full board of directors and alternates and now the hiring of an executive director and an assistant. All of this did not happen overnight. But with...
Read moreFrom the Farm: What Size Nursery Tree is Best?
Four feet or eight feet is the question. I am referring to the size of a nursery tree that you purchase to plant in your new orchard. My following comments will surely raise rebuttals from some individuals in the pecan industry but such is the nature of the beast. I was told by an old...
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Harvest Sights and Sounds at Sunnyland
These photos of harvest at Sunnyland Farms near Albany, Georgia, are certain to evoke the sounds, the smells and the feel of the earth moving for pecan growers who experience this special event every fall. These photos were taken by Emily Myers, executive director of the National Pecan Shellers Association (E.M. Connor Photography). NPSA...
Read moreGoodbye to a Good Friend
I lost a good friend in the pecan industry on the 28th of June. Mr. Jim Graves, 91, passed away of natural causes on that day. Jim came to the pecan industry late in life after a successful career in the tunnel construction industry. Jim was a naval officer in World War II in the...
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The Variety Block: Evaluating New Cultivars is Critical
The purpose of this article is to consolidate and distribute information about one of the most important aspects of our future as pecan growers — new and improved varieties. There have been a few articles about new varieties over the past few years, some positive and some negative, but growers need the most useful information...
Read moreProposed Marketing Order, Scab Control Need Attention
Here is it June already and I just got through with Christmas. Time has really moved along this year. I am told that it gets that way as you get older. In any event, I thought I would take a little time to comment on the crop prospects and other things since they so graciously...
Read moreLessons learned (again) in 2013
2013 was an interesting year in the pecan world and it appears 2014 is following in its footsteps, at least in the Southeast. Record summer rainfall gave way to a dry harvest period and then right back into a wet pattern in December. Cold temperatures, rain, snow, sleet and ice have all made their mark...
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Two Silent Tree Killers
I am writing this month to discuss 2 silent killers that rob tree vitality and yield over the course of time, without most growers noticing until the damage is extreme. The first of these is the Prionus Root Borer, which attacks many different species of trees including pecan. This pest is present in varying degrees...
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Scab Strangles in the South
We are through the first week of August now and have accumulated record rainfall so far this year. At 50 inches plus we are at our annual rainfall total for an average year. After several years of drier than normal weather we have been caught with our pants down to some degree. There is no...
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Regeneration is a Fact of Life
Regeneration in the present context will be defined as ‘to restore to original strength’ or ‘to restore to a better, higher or more worthy state’. A pecan orchard must then, by definition, be regenerated because a pecan tree will not produce forever. In the mid-1970s after we initially purchased some land along the Verdigris River,...
Read moreTime for a Change
It is with some sadness that I am announcing that I will no longer be writing a regular column for Pecan South. While I expect that I may continue to contribute something to the magazine from time to time I really feel that it is time for me to give way to some new blood....
Read more2012 in review
The 2012 crop in the East started a month early and it appears that it will end a month early also. By the time you read this, the crop should be in the bag with perhaps some minor clean up in progress. This has been a different year to say the least. This crop has...
Read more2012 SE Crop Update
It is the middle of October now and we are 10 days to 2 weeks ahead of our normal harvest schedule. It is beginning to look like the crop here is not quite as large as earlier forecast. It is still a good off-year crop but some farms are currently running 15-20 percent under last...
Read moreConcluding the Varieties Discussion
Over the past 2 months, I have covered, from a grower’s standpoint, several varieties that, while older, have done well for me and others over the long haul. While this is not to say that many of the new varieties that have been released, both public and private, will not do well over time, I...
Read moreVarieties worth considering (Part II)
In my last column, I wrote about two varieties, ‘Desirable’ and ‘Kiowa’, that I consider two of my favorite selections for the main variety in a new orchard in the East. To these I add a third, ‘Creek’, released by the USDA in 1996. In my experience, this tree is very precocious, does well in...
Read morePart 1: Varieties Worth Considering
For some time I have been considering what varieties to plant in some new orchards we are establishing. I have read and studied many of the new releases and, while interesting to me in some cases, long-term field data is missing on these. True performance can only be assessed after the variety is in a...
Read moreVarieties Worth Considering—Part 1
For some time I have been considering what varieties to plant in some new orchards we are establishing. I have read and studied many of the new releases, and while interesting to me in some cases, long-term field data is missing on these cultivars. True performance can only be assessed after the variety is in...
Read moreLooking at the 2012 Crop
I have just returned from a few days in the central valley of California, the heart of tree nut production in North America and perhaps the world. When you have driven for hour upon hour past field after field of citrus, walnuts, almonds, pistachios, grapes, alfalfa, fruit trees, olives, and every vegetable imaginable, you realize...
Read moreOut and About
The Georgia Pecan Growers Association recently concluded its annual meeting in Perry, Georgia. While I was unable to attend the entire meeting it appeared there was a very large turnout. There is more and more interest in the industry now that it has turned profitable. As far as this year’s crop in the Southeast goes,...
Another year already?
Bud break on ‘Desirable’ occurred in South Georgia on March 10, a record for earliness as far as I can find out. It has been the shortest winter season I can remember. We just shipped the last of the 2011 crop and we are starting on the new crop already. We are scrambling to get...
Read more60-day countdown
It is early February and depending on your location you have approximately 60 days until budbreak. By the time you read this you should be deep into those off-season projects for improving and maintaining a good orchard. Skips replanted, drainage improved, pruning and/or hedging well underway, sprayers undergoing maintenance for this summer, soil samples taken,...
Read moreTime Marches On
I have just finished reading the first column I wrote for Pecan South. That was March of 2005, 7 years ago. It is interesting to see what has run true with what I wrote and what I was dead wrong about. Sometimes one has to study history to learn what not to do in the future...
Read moreA Curious Letter
A couple of days ago I received a letter, one that piqued my curiosity. It did that because of two things: first of all there was no return address and, secondly, the address was to me at a farm address that no longer exists, indicating the label came off a mailing list that was not...
Read moreFall is Here Once Again
We had received some nuts into our cleaning plant last week and were beginning to tune it up when rain struck Georgia. After going the whole summer without much rain to speak of and just when harvest is ready to get underway, wouldn’t you know it — rain! It has been raining here for 3...
Read more2011 and Beyond
The National Pecan Shellers Association meeting was held in mid-September and they estimated the U.S. crop at 277 million pounds. As I write this, I do not have the breakdown by state but I am sure Cindy will have it elsewhere in the magazine. If you average NPSA’s 277 million with the various grower group...
Read moreAccountability
A few months ago I remember writing about how excited I was with all the new things going on in the industry with U.S. Pecan being formed, an industry-wide coordinated research effort spearheaded by OSU’s Mike Smith, and more research projects by the shelling industry, etc. Growers were excited about a decent profit and more...
Read moreChanging Times
On July 9, in the Albany, Georgia Herald newspaper an extensive article on the pecan business was printed. It was a good article that covered many parts of the business and interviewed people that participate in different areas of the business. Growing, academics, sales and processing were all covered. What really struck me though was a single...
Read moreNew Pecan Lands: Argentina
Last month my wife, partner and I had the opportunity to visit a new (to me) country and observe a fledgling pecan industry getting its legs under it. We spent 5 days traveling the northeastern part of Argentina with our gracious hosts, Miguel and Karen Blanchard, and Alejandro and Carmen Llanos. While pecans have been...
Read moreViews on the 2011 Crop
In reviewing the farms that I manage, it appears that we have a good crop coming on. We are yet to get through the “June drop” so things can still change but terminal counts and observations support an estimate for our orchards that is consistent with our production in 2009 and 2010. To extrapolate that...
Read moreClimate Changes Contributing To Orchard Decline
After decades of pecan farming in central Texas, I have begun to see major changes in my orchard, which makes it more difficult to conduct seasonal activities like spraying, etc. My educational background is in engineering and meteorology, and as I began to read more and more of the scientific research about the earth’s changing...
Read moreNow It’s Time to Farm!
We have spent the winter going to meetings, talking about what might have been or might be in the future and in general being optimistic about what lies ahead for the industry. All is well and good as it should be, but now begins the time when we have to produce the crop we are...
Read moreDig Deep and Make it Work!
On Feb. 26, I attended a meeting of the National Pecan Growers Council held at the Beau Rivage Hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi, in conjunction with the Southeastern Pecan Growers Association meeting. We were exposed to the work that the National Pecan Growers Council has been doing in obtaining and using funds from two federal programs...
Read moreFood Safety and You
Many of you will say that food safety does not pertain to you on the farm but you would be wrong — more wrong than you can imagine. Recently Congress passed and the President signed the first major legislation revising and enlarging food safety law in many years. With the exception of those items that...
Read moreA New Era for Pecans
In preparation for tax filing and for this coming season’s financing, I have just finished preliminary profit and loss statements for 2010. As was expected, our farming operations had a very profitable year with prices being what they are. The other side of the coin was our fundraising and gift business. That was not so...
Read moreWhat to Blame?
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...
Read moreCrop Failure
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...
Read moreOdds and Ends
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...
Read moreTime For A New Pricing Structure?
As new estimates for the 2010 crop come out and as I observe the crop around my home area, I realize that this will be a fairly large “off” year crop. In addition, walnut production is forecast to be double what it was two years ago and up 17 percent from last year. This tells...
Read morePre-Harvest Activity
It appears that this is one year that a small crop got larger, which does not happen very often. Here in the Southeast, the potential is very good this year. A little scab here and there from early rains but I do not think that it will have much effect on the total crop. We...
Read moreScab Control Update
Last year and this year have been tough years for scab control in the eastern part of the growing belt. Wet weather has created more challenges in controlling this disease the past two years than we have seen in some time. Because of this, I thought I might revisit the issue and add some things...
Read moreA Look at the 2010 Crop
By the time you read this the first crop estimate of the year will have been made at the Louisiana pecan meeting. I have no idea what that estimate will be. The past 6 “off” years’ production for the U.S. has averaged about 195 million pounds. I have heard 2010 estimates for Mexico of about...
Read moreLivestock and Pecans? No!
Most of you probably don’t realize that most of the early part of my life was spent as a cowboy. I was born on a 300,000-acre cattle ranch in California in 1949. The farm I grew up on in Arizona also operated several thousands of acres of desert range and my family currently operates a...
Read moreCommodity Commissions
As most of you know, for many years I have been a proponent of a federal research and promotion order to collect mandatory funds to use in research and for the promotion of our product in the marketplace. I am about to change my mind on this because of problems that I perceive with our...
Read moreSpring Brings New Possibilities
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...
Read moreTree Hedging In The Southeast
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...
Read moreTime To Move On
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...
Read moreA New Year, a New Time
As I sit at my desk writing this month’s column, there is a cold, steady rain falling outside. It is Sunday morning and the first day off I have had since mid-October. I have been enjoying the fire in the living room fireplace, a cup of coffee with my wife, our new dog Pepper at...
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