Pecan growers facing ‘difficult year’
Posted on Thursday, December 4, 2008
Pecan growers across Arkansas are harvesting a sparse crop and encountering weak demand. “It’s been a real difficult year,” especially given the high cost of production, said Randy Hardin, who was overseeing a five-man crew Wednesday that was harvesting pecans from a 60-acre orchard near Scott in Pulaski County.
For the past 25 years, Hardin’s Grady-based firm, H&M Pecan Co., has harvested and marketed pecans for landowners in Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Missouri.
Pecan trees tend to produce a bigger crop one year followed by a smaller crop the next. This year was expected to be an off year, but production was further reduced by hurricane-related wind and water damage.
As a result, growers will be hard pressed to recoup their expenditures for fuel and fertilizer, especially as cash-strapped consumers look for ways to trim their own spending, Hardin said.
As of Oct. 1, Arkansas was forecast to produce 1 million pounds of pecans, down more than 56 percent from last year’s crop of 2. 3 million pounds, according to the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Improved varieties are expected to account for 55 percent of the state’s total production, with the remaining 45 percent coming from native and seedling varieties.
Nationwide, pecan production in 2008 is forecast at 204 million pounds, down 47 percent from last year’s crop but roughly equal to the 2006 crop. The top three pecan-producing states — Georgia, New Mexico and Texas — are expected to har- vest more than 70 percent of all U. S. pecans.
Arkansas’ pecan production is off this year because many trees were inundated by heavy rainfall, said Elena Garcia, fruit and nut specialist with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.
“Although pecans grow in river bottoms, they cannot take underwater conditions for a prolonged period of time,” Garcia said.
Many growers also failed to adequately thin their pecans last year, leading to an abnormally small crop this year, she said.
Next spring, Garcia plans to survey Arkansas’ pecan growers to document how many there are, the number of acres they manage, where their orchards are located, what kinds of trees they have and how many pecans they produce.
The state’s pecan trees are some of the least productive in the nation, Garcia said.
“My question is: ‘Why do we have such low productivity ?’ Is it poor management ? Are the trees too old ? Is it the climate ? We don’t know,” she said.
In addition to surveying growers, Garcia will monitor insects in at least half a dozen orchards statewide, cooperating with both growers and local county extension agents.
Dan Chapman, president of the Arkansas Pecan Growers Association, said he is eager to learn more details about the industry.
The association now has about 50 members, said Chapman, who is resident director of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s Fruit Research Station near Clarksville in Johnson County.
The station has an excellent pecan crop this year, “the largest crop I’ve seen in 11 years,” Chapman said.
Robert “Crash” Carruthers, who owns and manages a 165-acre pecan orchard near Morrilton in Conway County, said his trees also held great promise this year.
“We were going to have a grand slam, up until about three or four weeks before harvest,” Carruthers said. “Last year we did 188, 000 pounds, and we had the potential for doing 220, 000 pounds this year.”
However, straight-line winds associated with a late August storm knocked down 30-35 trees and 1, 500-1, 800 big branches, he said.
Heavy rains associated with Hurricane Gustav delayed orchard cleanup and, about 10 days later, Hurricane Ike knocked off 20-25 percent of the remaining, immature pecans, Carruthers said.
Additional losses became apparent about a week later, when the hulls of about 20 percent of the surviving pecans turned black, he said.
The stems were so bruised that the trees were unable to deliver nutrients to their nuts, Carruthers said.
The orchard ended up producing 105, 000-107, 000 pounds, he said. “I’m thankful I had a crop.”
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
