USDA: Pecan production to hit 309 million pounds

NEW ORLEANS — Pecan production is expected to reach 309 million pounds this year, up nearly 60 percent from last year’s 193.9 million pounds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

While increased production suggests increased availability — a good thing for those who can’t get enough pecan pie at Thanksgiving — continued rainy weather could hurt crop quality in major pecan-growing states. That could affect pricing at the grocery store.

USDA officials noted in a Friday report that frequent summer rains produced “widespread disease problems” in Georgia, the nation’s biggest pecan producer, with an estimated 90 million pounds expected this year.

“We want to make sure consumers get the best,” said Vickie Mabry, executive director of the National Pecan Shellers Association.

The sometimes heavy rains that vexed other farmers earlier in the season have helped fill out the crop in parts of central and northern Louisiana, said Tom Vogel, the president of the Louisiana Pecan Growers Association, whose own business has orchards in those areas. However, “the rains need to quit” with the harvest looming, he said.

Louisiana’s pecan crop is expected to reach 8 million pounds this year, exceeding last year’s hurricane-ravaged crop but falling far short from 2007’s 14-million pound bumper crop. “Alternate bearing” pecans are known for yo-yo production — good years followed by bad.

Sammye Crawford, deputy director of Louisiana’s branch of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, said she’s gotten reports of farmers losing pecans because of the recent stormy weather.

“If I had to comment on that, you probably won’t be looking at cheap pecans this year,” she said.

But Vogel said he expects to sell pecans at the same price as last year. He said he hopes that carries through the chain, from sheller to retailer to consumer.

MILBANK, S.D. (AP) — Some crop dusters have asked local officials to require markings on the wind measurement towers put up ahead of planned wind farm projects to keep the towers from blending in with the landscape.

Flying 140 mph at low altitudes in a small airplane carries numerous dangers, but the unmarked towers add a danger that could be eased by markings or lighting, said Brian Hauschild, president of the S.D. Aviation Association.

“From the ground, you can see them, because they stick up,” he said. “But from the air, they blend in with the crop or the ground.”

Hauschild asked the Grant County Board of Commissioners to consider requiring colored rings on the towers to make them more visible.

“A lot of area sprayers are voicing the same concerns,” he said.

Wind measurement towers, which are generally white, are just a few inches in diameter and about 197 feet high. The Federal Aviation Administration requires structures 200 feet high or more to be marked or lighted for visibility, but for now it falls on local governments to regulate shorter towers.

“In the short-term, we’re working on getting them marked so we can see them,” Hauschild said. “In the long-term, I’m talking to the FAA, but this isn’t something that will happen quickly.”

Hauschild said he has been as close as three-quarters of a mile from a tower and couldn’t see it. Also, the towers are often moved and set up quickly, making it difficult to keep track of them, he said.