I was out with Jeff and Joseph Matthews on the east side of the county yesterday and they were gathering nuts from Desirable trees. Mr. Jeff is driving the sweeper with flippers to gather nuts creating the windrows. Joseph is driving the harvester right behind him. Conditions are good for harvesting now since we are dry. We are almost too dry as dust reduces vision between trees. These are the first nuts they are picking up, so they are mostly making sure equipment is set right. The harvester was digging into the ground a little and had to be adjusted and had to adjust air flow to keep harvester from loading up. They’ll go back to shaking Stuarts again next week and gathering those next.
Below is a picture of nuts falling into the dump cart:
It’s a little early to know yield and grade numbers. But based upon early-season projections, there are lots of nuts are on the ground and being picked up. Kernel development looked good in most we cracked. Early nuts usually have decent prices. Prices are updated each Tuesday and Thursday throughout the pecan harvest season through the USDA Fed-State Market News Service.
Thomas County Ag 