unpleasantly surprised by unobserved ant infestations
within or even adjacent to their orchards. Several bait
formulations can effectively reduce ant populations when
properly employed. Contact your Pest Control Advisor
(PCA) for the best applications for your situation, and
also remember to look down when walking through your
orchards. Many ant problems are simply unobserved.
An important point about reject damage
Growers must also consider that the reject level
determined during grading reflects the weight of kernels
with reject damage that remained in the delivery lot at
the time of receipt. However, reject kernels are “lost”
throughout the harvesting, hulling and shelling process,
reducing the overall level of damage reflected in your
grower statement. For those producing meat deliveries,
it has been well documented that the harvesting, shelling
and cleaning process can remove approximately half of
the reject kernels from the flow of product. In other words,
the actual crop losses coming out of the orchard can be
much higher than the level indicated on a delivery’s grade
sheet, typically twice as high.
Growers with inshell almonds must take extra measures to
detect reject kernels. Because inshell almonds with insect
damage are not typically light enough to be separated
during hulling, growers should sample their crop during
Comparative Values at Varying Reject Levels
Yield
2,500
Price
$2.50
Total Premium
Total
Incremental
Total
Meat Wt
Reject % Reject
Wt
Harvest &
Shelling Loss
Good
Meat Wt
Base Payment
Rate
Amount
Total Value
Loss
Loss
2,500 0.00% -
-
2,500 $6,250.00 $0.185 $462.50 $6,712.50
2,500 1.00% 25
25
2,450 $6,125.00 $0.175 $428.75 $6,553.75
($158.75)
2,500 2.00% 50
50 2,400 $6,000.00 $0.115 $276.00 $6,276.00
($436.50)
($277.75)
2,500 3.00% 75
75
2,350 $5,875.00 $0.050 $117.50 $5,992.50
($720.00)
($283.50)
2,500 4.00% 100 100 2,300 $5,750.00 $0.045 $103.50 $5,853.50
($859.00)
($139.00)
2,500 5.00% 125
125
2,250 $5,625.00 $0.035 $78.75 $5,703.75
($1,008.75)
($149.75)
2,500 6.00% 150 150 2,200 $5,500.00 $0.025 $55.00 $5,555.00
($1,157.50)
($148.75)
2,500 7.00% 175
175
2,150 $5,375.00 $0.015 $32.25 $5,407.25
($1,305.25)
($147.75)
2,500 8.00% 200 200 2,100 $5,250.00 $0.005 $10.50 $5,260.50
($1,452.00)
($146.75)
2,500 9.00% 225 225
2,050 $5,125.00
($0.005 ($10.25)
$5,114.75
($1,597.75)
($145.75)
2,500 10.00% 250 250 2,000 $5,000.00
($0.015)
($30.00)
$4,970.00
($1,742.50)
($144.75)
Assumes full premium for Chipped & Broken and Foreign Material = $.055
Assumes Nonpareil variety, Meat delivery.
IN YOUR ORCHARD
4 0
A L M O N D F A C T S
