Regarde our almond tree performance this year! We had set expectations for this year’s crop knowing that quite a few of the trees went MIA during the springtime blowover. The harvest totals are nearly finalized and aside from the reduction in tree count, the trees that are still upstanding have done a superb job.

These results for our Monterey variety are fairly representative. All figures are expressed in net pounds. Observe that yield per tree held to its historical average…

Yield
[enlargeable]

Note that some years are better than other years and the farmer will try to fathom why and how that is and try to  help the trees produce consistent results. A necessary step in this task is to track the year over year results as you can see in these spreadsheet snippets.

Graphical Yield[enlargeable]

Nut sizes fluctuate as well. The nut sizing method counts the number that fit a one ounce (28.35 grams) container. Thus the smaller the size number rank then the larger the nut kernel 18 to 20 is the largest size category, 36 to 40 is the smallest. Observe the correlation between our production yield above and our nut size comparison chart that follows.

Nut Size[enlargeable]

It would seem that a prolific nut set results in smaller individual nut size and vice versa.

There is one more production metric and that one is the conversion from field harvest weight (gross) to processed meat weight (net). This is called Turnout and is derived at the Huller by dividing the net meat weight by the gross field weight.

Typically, field weight yields 13 percent debris, 50 percent hulls, 14 percent shells, and 23 percent clean almond meats and pieces, but these ratios are variable as you can see. So, at 25.3% our Turnout was adequate.

The Butte will be processed soon and that will wrap things up for 2017. We have much to give thanks for.