By Clint Thompson
Equipment needs are an obvious and expensive component of pecan production. Southeast growers interested in producing trees need to understand that reality, says Lenny Wells, University of Georgia Extension pecan specialist.
“For equipment on pecans, that’s one of the biggest expenses. With pecans, there are certain things you have to have if you’re going to do the whole operation yourself. You’ve got to have tractors and sprayers, herbicide sprayer, airblast sprayer. If you’ve got mature bearing trees, you’ve got to have a sweeper and a blower and harvester. You’ve got to have dump wagons. You’ve got to have harvest wagons that you dump from the dump wagons into,” Wells said. “In 2019, if you got one of everything that you could need in growing pecans, the cost for that would have been a little over $500,000. Now, that cost is a little over $800,000. That’s how much it’s gone up.”
Growers who are just now establishing pecan orchards can save up to purchase some of the harvesting equipment. Trees generally take between 8 and 10 years to mature, so it could be as long as a decade before a farmer harvests his first pecan.
“Fortunately, a grower that’s planting his orchard today doesn’t have to have all of that right now,” Wells said. “If you’re just now planting an orchard, you’ll need a tractor, mower and herbicide sprayer would be pretty much all the equipment that you would need at the moment.”
Farmers can also contract with bigger, more established producers to assist with sprays or harvesting their crop.
“The harvest equipment is some of the largest expense; that and the airblast sprayer. If you’re in an area where there’s a lot of pecan production, there’s opportunity to be able to find somebody to pay to do some of that for you,” Wells said. “You may can grow your way into some of this equipment as your pecans come into production.”
Feature keyphrase: Pecan equipment
Slugs: Georgia Alabama pecan equipment Wells UGA
Category: Pecans
Use generic picture of pecans.