Dec. 15, 2011 - Harvey and Nancy McCoin of Howland were hoping for plenty of pecans this year. But, the drought has struck yet another area of agriculture, making the pecans, while still plentiful in numbers, smaller than average in size.
"It was supposed to be what they call an 'on year,'" Harvey said. "It should have been a real good year. I would say that in this area, production is going to be half of what it would have been for the crop we set."
Pecan growers and harvesters can generally look at a calendar and know when they are going to have a good year or a bad year, as the trees seem to have a unique production cycle.
"In our native trees, we usually see every other year," Harvey explained. "Every five to six years, there will be a great year. Next year, we shouldn't expect too much."
"2007 was our biggest year," Nancy added. "We had a bumper crop then."
"We had a little over 4 million pounds that year," Harvey said.
In 2009 the Howland Pecan Company shipped 65 loads, and then in 2010, they shipped only 13 loads. But in an "on year" like they had in 2007, it makes the off years worth the wait. Nancy estimated that in the 2007 bumper crop they shipped out approximately 93 loads. So while this "on year" isn't likely to bare comparison to the 2007 bumper crop, it should still prove profitable.
Due to heat stress, and decreased moisture, pecans were thrown off trees a little early this year. Despite setbacks, Harvey said the quality of the pecans are still very good, it is just the size of the pecans.
"We probably started seeing some pecans fall off the later part of July and August," Harvey said. "The heat was as bad as anything, coupled with the drought. The heat probably caused them to throw off as many as anything, and then the drought caused the size. We set a real good crop in May, and it has just kind of dwindled from there."
Normally there are 90 to 120 pecans per pound. With such tough conditions, some of the native pecans are running 160 to 190 per pound. Pecans are still handled one at a time at the shellers where the McCoins market their pecans, so these smaller pecans are not necessarily what they will want to deal with.
"They can do 500 a minute and when you are talking 190 pecans per pound versus 90, that is over twice as long to shell one pound of pecans," Harvey explained.
While the McCoins planted their own grove of pecans, Harvey has been harvesting for others for more than 20 years. Looking back he explained that usually his pecan harvesting is well under way much earlier in the season.
"They are so late this year," he said. "We are normally always going full steam by Thanksgiving and we haven't even started harvesting (as of Nov. 30). They are still green you can't shake them all out of the trees. Normally by the second week of November we are harvesting."
But the McCoins are not concerned they say as long as they can get them harvested before the weather gets too bad, or some kind of varmint gets a hold of them, they will harvest as much as they can.
"We have run into March before," Harvey said. "If it got real warm and wet, then you are going to start seeing some rot. But as long as it stays cold and fairly dry, we will continue to harvest until there is nothing left."
Along with harvesting for others and buying pecans for their storefront in Paris, they have planted a grove of their own.
"It will probably be another FIVE years," Harvey said. "They need to be at least 10 years old before we can machine harvest. There are some pecans on them this year, but there is no way to machine harvest them this year."
"We have some paper shell trees that we planted several years ago, but they are not mature enough yet to harvest," Nancy explained. "Then we have about 150 trees of our own and then Harvey goes and harvests for other people. Then the store, even though we own it all it is all separate, so we sell to the store then. We buy from other machine harvesters also, and from the public too -- people that pick up out of their yard and everything."
When harvesting, many growers requested a few hundred pounds of their crop cracked and returned to them. With no local place for cracking, they decided to buy a cracker.
"We were already having to clean our own and everything," Harvey said. "We built a new warehouse and put in an electric sorter that we are hoping to help eliminate about five to six people standing at a sorter table doing it all by hand."
There have been many changes made to the Howland Pecan Company business in just six short years and more is expected to take place. They hope to add onto the new warehouse and have a better storefront in the future, and maybe even add a specialty line of products. Once their groves are ready in a few years, they also hope to be selling their own pecans through the storefront with the improved varieties.
To find out more about the Howland Pecan Company or visiting their storefront, visit www.howlandpecanco.com.
