Tag Archives: Almonds

So Long Old Friends

Historical

The almond orchard removal process has begun. It was time. The conjunction of declining harvest yield and profit spread was the impetus.

as of 12/26/2020 one row gone…

The orchard, originally planted in 1998 by tenant farmer Jagpal Bath, had a tough time of it in those early years. The orchard had been abandoned and was nearly doomed when in 2001 Estee Strom foreclosed and undertook matters; successfully reversing the neglect and reviving the trees.

Our trees have served us well, but almond orchards by nature have a lifespan of 25-30 years. The main factor in an almond trees lifespan is, of course, productivity. A new almond tree normally begins to produce at age 4 or 5 and achieves a yield plateau by year 15. After that it starts to slowly decline.

Routinely, diseased or aged trees that succumb to springtime wind storms can be replaced with replants but in the last several years this kind of tree loss was accelerating and alarming.

Orchard removal and replacement is capital intensive so our decision to proceed at this time has not been trivial. Tracking and comparing yields over time provided some analytical guidance. Also, market pricing. When the payoff approaches break-even or threatens to dip below our decision solidified. Based upon trends a 2021 crop likely would have resulted in operational losses.

Following the decision, necessary contracts and permitting started the process. The irrigation drip lines were rolled up and removed from the tree berms. The trees are “pushed over” by heavy equipment. Another machine will lift them ( 14,294 at last count ) individually into a mechanical basket designed to shred and chip roots, branches and sizeable trunks into manageable bits. A cheaper alternative would have been to mass the trees into pile heaps for burning but our aim is to incorporate them into the land as a green mulch. This will be better for air quality, obviously, and also give back to the soil.

And so, the cycle repeats. We farmers look forward to establishing our next crop enterprise as plans formulate and the orchard removal process proceeds.

Paper Trail

Educational

Making sure that no Almonds have been lost or overlooked along the way…

In the field block almonds are retrieved from the orchard floor and shuttled via a motorized cart to a truck and trailer accessible loading area. They are placed on a conveyor belt that elevates the almonds to the top of the trailers and loaded for transport. You can see a “funnel” on the bottom so that the almonds can be unloaded at the the huller/sheller.

Even though our almond  harvest has been picked up and shipped out we retain ownership and so it is in our interest to monitor custody. The almonds are delivered to a huller/sheller processor co-op called Central California Almond Growers Association (CCAGA) and then to a handler named Panoche Creek Packing (Panoche Creek) These enterprises are not too distant by truck route but our product undergoes quite the transformation  along the way. A follow up post will describe in detail the operations at these facilities. They can/will provide us a private tour which you would find fascinating but generally what we see from our office chairs are the following steps:

  1. Trucker Ticket Receipt furnished as loads depart the orchard. The truck driver makes a record as his hauling fee is dependent upon the number of loads that are transported. 
  2. Weighmaster Certificate  e.g. 11900040 as each load stops to be weighed. The truck drives onto a full length scale at the weigh station. The known empty weight of the rig is subtracted from the gross to get the almond field weight. 
  3. CCAGA Grower Deliveries a tabulation of all truck loads. Referenced are a Delivery Ticket (No.) and/or a Weight Ticket (No.)
  4. CCAGA Stock Pile Grower History The almonds get deposited on the ground into a numbered pile where they await their turn for hulling and shelling. The Weight Certificate # is logged and correlated to a Delivery Receipt #  e.g. 1935561 and assigned a Stock Pile Number e.g. KNK12
  5. CCAGA Turn Out Details is a recapitulation after the almonds in the field are combined in batch for post harvest processing. The hull is separated leaving the almond shell intact with nut inside if desired. (We receive a small compensation from the hull material which is sold for animal feed and other residual uses.) The In-shell almonds, shelled almonds, and loose meats are allocated to smaller Wood Bins and numbered e.g. Bin # 19901328
  6. CCAGA Shipping Manifest is a list of the Wood Bin(s) by number. Each Bin provides a total net weight and these are sum totaled. Truck transport info is documented as the crop harvest is next to be received by the finish processor facility and marketing agent. A Manifest No. is assigned for the next stage.
  7. Panoche Creek Inedible Almond Inspection Field Notes accompanies the CCAGA Shipping Manifest. It is a randomly drawn test sample taken from the almond kernels in a Bin for the CCAGA Shipping Manifest. The sample is analysed to determine the extent of foreign material, moisture, etc. This testing result is tied to the Panoche Creek Grower Delivery Report outcome which follows.
  8. Panoche Creek Grower Delivery Report is the final document record and it is a tabulation summary from the CCAGA Shipping Manifest. The Net Good Meats are calculated using the associated Almond Inspection Field Note as a global template for that batch. Finally, the tabulation is sub-totaled by variety and by field location in this report.

These documents, in the order listed above, are correlated by at least one serial identifier in turn. For instance,  a Grower Delivery has a Weight Ticket that matches a Weight Cert# on the Stock Pile Grower History. These two forms are linked in this way. The form documents form an event chain through the entire process.

Have a look at this PDF link:  Example Paper Trail for Nonpareil – East Block and see if you can follow the path of Bin (19300338) holding loose nuts  (Note: the example starts with and shows Step 3 through Step 8)

Wood Bins with Almonds transported from the CCAGA Huller facility to Panoche Creek Packing.

Orchard Layout

Infrastructure

Nonpareil, as the premier nut, is predominate. The necessary cross-pollinating varieties alternate rows. They all bloom with close timing. The Nonpareil is first. Fritz is an excellent pollenizer for Nonpareil, blooming with or just after the Nonpareil. Butte and Monterey pollinate the late Nonpareil bloom.

Observe this map diagram. It depicts the variety by row number. Note that the rows are numbered starting from the North working South. Also, notice that the varieties carry through from West Field into the East Field. This streamlines the mechanics of planting, harvest and post harvest sanitation. After tree shake the fallen nuts are processed independently however. West field yield is shipped/processed separately from that of the East field. One can visualize how the varieties are organized. The red path lines denote Nonpareil. Green for Butte. Yellow is Fritz and Blue is the Monterey.

There are 118 rows with 22′ spacing between the rows.

Link to full map view

An expert might know the difference but Almond trees all look the same to the layperson. There are [somewhat faded] marking letters brush painted on the tree trunks at the row ends. (e.g. N signifying Nonpareil) to assist. This map reference is the more durable record. Confusing a variety would be a blunder.

The Monterey planting is a bit of mystery. It is said that the layout was conceived without adequate planning notice given to the tree nursery supplier. We are unsure which was unavailable. The Monterey or the Butte variety.

Almond World Markets

Marketing

It’s on our minds; How are the tariffs affecting sales? Attention is directed toward China which is a player. According to market following pundits, it’s too early to tell.

Top ten export  markets — alongside the USA’s domestic deliveries for scale — These 10 represent 65% of total exports. Source: Almond Almanac 2017

Overall the outlook for Almonds are the picture of health but the latest snapshot, which would be from June, is mixed. Shipments were down 11% but for the year to date shipments are up 8% over last year. (This is good because the USDA estimates that the 2018 Almond Crop will be record breaking.) China and select markets are presented:

Source: June Position Report

“Everybody wants to know how the tariffs will affect the shipments. Unfortunately, it will be months before we know. Almonds will be more expensive to the consumer causing concern; prices they haven’t seen since the 2015 crop.” – Panoche Creek Packing Almond Market Brief for July 2018

Winter Sanitation

Horticulture,

Chemicals are used for controlling Navel Orange Worm (NOW) a pest that sometimes plagues growers, but another effective and sustainable method is sanitation. We marginalize a conducive breeding habitat by removing postharvest Mummie Nuts – a food source. Mummie shaking, either by machine or by hand using polling sticks does the trick.

some that are still on the tree

I took postharvest snapshots at our orchard last month:

and some are already on the ground

Removal is normally accomplished during winter, after rain and days of fog have weakened the nut’s attachment to the tree, allowing growers to

Blue Diamond Growers report photo

re-shake their trees, sweep and then grind the nuts using flail mowers. As noted in the following Blue Diamond Growers  report: some are not waiting and are sending hand crews into their orchards to knock the mummies to the ground using poles.  Everyone in the valley is hoping for another wet winter with ample rainfall. Unfortunately, last year’s deluge prevented quite a few from sending shakers into the orchards and after enduring the damage present in the 2017 crop, some are making extra efforts to ensure that their orchards will be free of all mummy nuts going into the 2018 growing season. The combination of over-wintering larvae coming into the 2017 crop, coupled with the high temperatures experienced in July, which prolonged the hull split resulted in extremely high NOW populations that created significant problems for growers throughout the 2017 harvest. 

 

Luckily, our orchard has escaped excessive NOW population.

Also, the report mentions that many growers [at this time] are applying soil amendments, such as gypsum or lime to correct soil salinity and pH problems. We have ordered gypsum and compost to be spread to combat our own salinity issue at the rate of 2 tons to the acre each.

Sweep and Pickup

Horticulture,

The last visual showed almonds scattered on the orchard floor left to dry – post tree shake. Moisture soon dropped below the desired 5% threshold (actual outcome 3.6 to 4.1%) and the nuts were ready for collection and transport. As these nuts are resting atop dry soil much of it loose, the standard procedure is to literally blow and sweep them into a single row. This formed row makes it possible for a pick up machine to straddle the row pile and scoop up the almond without running them over. Follows is a generic video of the blowing and sweeping action in which they tout their special berm brush to keep the dust down. I see it interfering with the drip hoses along the tree line center however. Attention: engineers in our clan! Is there a better way?

The sweeper machine blows nuts from one side of the tree berm to the open space opposite; while the main brush drives the bulk into the flat center space herding the nuts into a single row. They are retrieved by the pick up machine and carried by a cart in tow; leaving dirt and debris behind. Once the cart is full it is lifted hydraulically to dump its contents into yet another conveyance cart whose only purpose is to shuttle between the pick up machine and a semi-truck trailer awaiting roadside. In this way the pick up machine can continuously stay busy in the field.

An auger and belt elevator move the almonds from the shuttle to trailer. Once these truck trailers are full they will make their way to the weigh & inspection station and huller, but more about that — next time.

Almond Harvest Dance

Horticulture,

Nonpareil nuts are on the orchard floor. This variety,  52% of the whole, bloomed first and harvest was begun. The Butte, Fritz, and Monterey follow in order and the process will span the remaining hot/dry season.  Our tree rows are interspersed by design and the harvester must exercise care that the  fruit varieties are not intermixed. Nonpareil is the more desireable and commands the best price category for its shape and size. Contamination with another variety (a no-no) reduces the grade to that of  mixed nuts — the lowest price.

The nuts are separated from tree by shaking. In early days this was done by laborers hand-knocking with sticks (poling), but is now mechanized due to the shear volume. The nuts in the center of the tree are the last to ripen. Moisture readings ~10% can be monitored. The nuts can be more difficult to dislodge if the hulls dry too much on tree but a test shake or two are usually the best indication that determine readiness. Optimum nut removal is 96 to 99%. Those that are left behind are not considered part of the harvest yield and become part of the orchard sanitation clean up proces$.

It’s a balancing act and a bit of a calculated race against nature as there is the eminent threat of Navel Orange Worm (NOW) and onset of early fall rain. The harvest is a significant [25%] portion of the expense budget. It is crucial that the process not begin before nut maturity but be complete before NOW pest infestation or mold issues. A too early harvest can result in excessive sticktights or curled hulls. They are a challenge mechanically and are graded as foreign matter in the delivery, a penalty.

Once on the ground the nuts must be left to dry for 1 to 2 weeks. Rain would be a detriment at this point. The machinery that process the nuts at the hulling site are impaired when nut moisture levels are too high. Almonds received in excess of 6.5% w.b.  must undergo the expense of mechanical drying. Almonds are contractually weight adjusted to a 5% ceiling. On the other hand, realise that we are paid by the pound and that moisture equals weight. Therefore 5% seems like a good target and we check the moisture statistic on the Grower Delivery Report at the end of the day.

Next: Sweeping and Pickup

 

 

Zooming In

Infrastructure

Inputs singular and combined determine outcomes.  Some are controllable and in order to quantify,  compare, and contrast production we would like to know about our tree and vine producers. We can judge performance against other farmers’ result averages. The Almond Board provides data for this purpose and we can readily see how we are doing in a macro sense. 

The white columns are statewide averages vs. the purple shaded which are ours. The density of trees on a given acre is assumed to be constant but you may not realize that this is not the case. In an effort to increase almond production new farmers are reducing the spacing between the trees and tree rows. (more trees/acre). Science says that, to an extent, there might be gains. A limiting factor would be the ability of sunlight to reach the individual tree.

Therefore a precise measure might be the tree itself. e.g. number of nuts per tree or number of pounds per tree. Whereas acreage is easily determined, number of trees — not so much. Referring to  previous post assumptions, we rely on our Harvester to provide a number. Insuring  Harvester honesty, we know that our tree spacing by design is: 22′ between rows and 18′ between trees. So, knowing an absolute number of trees we need only to subtract the missing to derive the actual.

Let’s zoom in! Can’t get too close however, resolution is restricted. We have to squint in order to realize what we are looking at. Here is a key:

4 missing – you can make out a small spot that is either a hole in the ground or a stump


4 missing – observe 2 recently planted that are a couple of years away from becoming producers. Note the area of shadow (black) cast by the tree (green) 1 newly planted at bottom of this example or is it a remnant? It’s subjective at times.


Toppled tree – see how its canopy lays across the neighboring row. How many missing do you see here?

It is easier to count blanks, the sandy soil is a good contrast to the eye. In healthy areas the tree canopy merges. The individual trees are non-distinquishable in places. View the entire mapping project. I spy 680 missing from the East Block and 675 from the West Block.

Almond Fruit Maturation

Horticulture,

Keen observers must realise that we have skipped the nut development stage. Recall that the play-by-play went silent after flowering and pollination; that is much more interesting because the process is quite visible, beautiful, plus added drama with the effects of spring weather. Since we like to keep things in-the-moment, Stage 2 Growth will be deferred until next time.

We are at Stage 3: Maturity. We can easily follow because, again, the phases are externally visible. The fruit components, beginning with the core, is the actual nut kernel, a hard shell, and enveloping these is the hull. 

The hull is of interest because at this stage it starts to split. The inshell nut is exposed in varying degrees. The kernel is still benefiting from irrigation water and nutrients but 85% of its growth development is already complete.

Hull Split  (dehiscence) is the term.  The hull is openable by hand at this point but in nature dehydration at the edges will fully expose the shell changing the shell color from white to brown.  A separation (abscission) between the hull and the tree begins. Once this happens the fruit might remain attached by a few fibers. These fibers will be broken during harvest when the tree is shaken and the nut falls to the ground.

There are external factors to consider during this split phase.  The hull must remain turgid by guarding against water stress and nutrient deficit to reduce sticktights. Too much irrigation risks hull rot. It’s a question of management timing; in other words, it only looks easy 😉

The hull split occurs from the top of the tree progressing downward. Harvest will usually commence at about 95% hull split but may occur sooner to avoid risk of NOW (Navel Orange Worm) or early fall rain.

Stay close! Harvest is next.

Visual Comparison

Infrastructure

Recall our rough and tumble Spring weather just a few months back that resulted in significant tree damage and loss in the Almond Orchard. Excessive wind gusts took down many trees as witnessed at ground zero. A Google Maps Satellite image update (3/31/2017) depicts the losses from an aerial perspective. The first image, using Google Earth’s Time Machine feature, shows both West and East fields and dates from March of 2015

The lower image is the more recent

Knowing the number of tree rows and tree spacing we calculate a maximum possible number of trees at 16,995. Of course there will always be gaps because of inefficiencies. In 2015 we estimated 16,337. As 171 of those underlie the PG&E high tension wires and have been severely topped. We can figure 16,166 Healthy, mature, producing trees in 2015.

One could use the Google Maps Mapmaker feature to drop a pin at the newly visible missing tree map locations to get a count. That is tedious work. Instead we will rely on the Almond Harvest Machine to give us a value. It employs a digital counter that increments each time it moves from one tree to the next. Harvest begins next month and we will compare last year’s with this year’s.