The show will go on this year, in spite of a dismal crop, said Texas AgriLife Extension Agent Jon Gersbach.
“It’s a slim crop,” Gersbach said. “We had a good crop last year. We had a lot of water, and a lot of nuts. Some trees will produce a good crop then skip the next year regardless of the weather. This year, we had a very dry year when it needed to be wet and it shows with the crop. There are a lot of trees that are not going to have nuts. It’s certainly a year that will have a short crop.”
Milam County’s 3 million-pound pecan crop produced a commodity value of $1.6 million in 2007. This year’s nut harvest will be one-fourth the measure gathered in the fall of 2007, Gersbach said.
Texas Agriculture Statistics Service estimates a statewide pecan yield of about 32 million pounds, less than half the nuts gathered in 2007, and below the average 60 million-pound harvests.
“The light production this year is the result of a big crop last year and the lack of rain at the end of the 2007 season,” Dr. Larry Stein, AgriLife Extension horticulture specialist, said. “Production was not only affected by the drought, but also the rains we received in September, which caused a good amount of disease.”
USDA estimates the nut crop of 204 million pounds (in-shell basis), to be down 47 percent from 2007, and 2 percent below 2006. About 85 percent of the total, or 171 million pounds, are the improved varieties while 16 percent, or almost 33 million pounds are from native trees, the USDA estimated.
While production is down significantly from last year, the quality of the pecans is generally good, Stein said.
“Since there were fewer pecans coming from a more concentrated area this year, those locations were harder hit than usual by insects and wildlife that typically feed on pecans, including raccoons, squirrels and deer,” Stein added. “On the plus side, we’re having good harvest weather here in South and South Central Texas and the pecan harvest, which started here about three weeks ago, will continue for about another month.
The Milam County extension service will be conducting its countywide pecan show, but the accompanying pecan bake show will be absent this year, Gersbach said.
“We will have enough pecans to have a show,” Gersbach said. “Will it be a big show? No. It will be a lot of good examples of the crop.”
Though a tree may have defied the elements and produced pecans, the outlook is grim for quality kernels, Gersbach said.
“They may not be filled out tip to tip, they may be misshapen, not a good quality and have a leathery, dry, almost like they are dehydrated, appearance,” he said.
