Orchard Management
There are ways to boost returns despite soft market conditions.
T
he pool-close is now in for the 2009 crop, and returns were poor, to say the least. But even with the difficulties the industry faced as a whole, did money not get into your pocket that could have despite the overall poor returns? The only area I can address with authority is what went into the bin. The pool-close numbers are a report card. Where you sit with your cents per pound or dollars per bin tells you very bluntly where you lost money and can direct your efforts for next year’s crop. Just for example, top price for BCXfcy Gala was close to 28 cents per pound for size 80s but Xfcy was almost 16 cents. Any tonnage that did not make BCXfcy cost you 12 cents per pound. On say 25 percent of a potential of 50 bins, you left $1,200 on the table by not moving that much fruit into BCXfcy. Any drop to Fcy size 80 only brought in about 12 cents. These grade drops are largely a colour issue. Grade drops and any sizes that fall from 100s to 80s cost you big time. I recognize that hail and fruit frozen on the tree last fall were beyond any grower’s control, but apart from weather, such grade drops are within your scope as a manager to do something about.
A more extreme example is Ambrosia. Top price for sizes 72s to 88s Xfcy was just over 38 cents, but a drop to size 100s returned 29 cents. There was an extreme drop to only 4.5 cents for size 80 and to 6.5 cents for size 100 when grades went to fancy from extra. If you only placed 25 to 50 percent in the Xfcy sizes 72 to 88 the cost was in excess of 25 cents by not shifting more Ambrosia into the better grade.
I know what some of you are saying: You have limited financial resources this fall and we don’t know what the coming year will yield for prices. My response is to focus your efforts where the potential money is. No matter what the market does there is likely to be more in Galas and Ambrosia and in high-paying grades of other varieties.
Galas in particular yield a higher packed box count per bin than most varieties. Now high-grade Macs did
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By Peter Waterman Are you leaving money on the table?
return a good deal of money but generally the packed boxes per bin is very poor.
Put your detail time into the variety that will give you biggest return for your effort. This goes for almost every aspect of production.
Grade improvements
are a result of better light conditions in the tree. Start at the top of the tree and get rid of umbrella tops and excess limbs that shade the bottom portion. Approximately two-thirds of your production is in the bottom one-half of the tree. Branches in the upper portion that shade a good portion of the lower areas need to be removed, especially those at one-half to two-thirds of the diameter of the main trunk where they arise.
I know the best colour is at the top, but there has to be a balance of vigour between top and bottom. In too many cases the tops have been allowed to outgrow the bottoms, with a loss of vigour in the bottom parts of the tree. In addition, throughout the tree cut light windows. Do extensive spur pruning, especially in the best paying variety. This will thin out excess buds and push vigour into the remaining buds on the spur. That, plus better light conditions, will encourage larger spur leaves to produce larger fruit and fruit buds that will actually set fruit. In addition there will be larger fruit buds generated for the following year’s crop. Generally, growers are not merciless enough when removing large limbs. Other blocks can’t be left alone, but chainsaw work to remove large limbs
that block light can be done quickly and with less skilled labour.
You and your best pruners must work and spend proportionately more time in the higher-paying blocks.
Pruning has the most effective result for grade and size impact – it is your first and major effort in fruit thinning and grade improvement.
The same concentrated effort must be applied to later chemical and hand thinning efforts. Despite the time it takes to use high-volume water per acre for chemical thinning, it is a lot cheaper, less time-consuming and more effective than hand thinning.
Tasks that can be cut back on include mowing – manicured blocks will not bring in more money.
Also, your pest control has to be well focused. Stay in close contact with your field service; do not miss the best timing for control of diseases and insects. The last thing I can say is pay close attention to crop maturity. Improved light and a balanced crop load due to well-focused pruning and thinning will allow more fruit to be picked with the best colour. Waiting past the best internal maturity because you are waiting for colour will cost you and make storage decisions for the house much more difficult.
My comments come from years of experience realizing growers need to make tough cuts and tough chemical thinning decisions. You have to tackle these things if you want more dollars that are yours for the taking.
— Retired Summerland horticulturist and grower Peter Waterman can be reached at
peter@omedia.ca
AGRICULTURAL NETS & FABRICS
www.farmsolutions.net neal_carter@telus.net
250.494.1099 British Columbia FRUIT GROWER • Fall 2010
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