Thank you for choosing to be a part of the Noble pecan research strategy project! We hope the results of the monitoring program will help you and other growers increase profitability while improving your orchard’s soil health.
Better soil with stronger profit
The aim of this research strategy is to assess levels of soil health, ecosystem resiliency and increased profit per acre across a continuum of orchard management strategies.
Silvopasture is the intentional integration of trees, domesticated animals, and forages managed together as a single, multilayered production system. An example of a standard Silvopasture system in the Southern United States consists of grazing livestock under pecan trees, which is the most economically important native nut tree that is commercially produced in the United States.
Profitability will be compared across the different management styles. Economic impacts will be analyzed and include yearly profits from pecan commodity; input costs; overhead, equipment, labor and other costs that impact profitability. Any value-added marketing products developed as a result of this study would impact consumers, growers, and the pecan industry. This will heighten interest in pecans, helping increase grower profitability. Commodity nutrient value of the pecans under different management strategies will be quantified by evaluating the amounts of antioxidants, vitamins, phenolics, fatty acids, carbohydrates and more in pecan kernels.
Monitoring your Orchard
Soil health will be evaluated based on nutrient composition (Haney) and microbial structure (PLFA) and microbial function (sequencing).
Pecan kernel nutritional values will be quantified by measuring levels of antioxidants, vitamins, phenolics, fatty acids, carbohydrates and more.
For FSMA grazing regulations guidance, soil and nuts will be tested to account for management impacts on pathogen abundance on consumable nuts.
As project participants, you can fill in your online questionnaires and track progress.
App-based scorecards will be used to evaluate management strategies and system impacts. The scorecards are a progress report for orchards following different management strategies. Scores are focused on soil health and geared toward soil centric management. Overall scores will be compared with previous years’ scores and can be used to identify areas for improvement to promote soil health within the orchard.
The Regenerative Orchard Scorecard and Orchard Health Scorecard are producer scorecards to be used once per year to gauge progress.
The Disease Scorecard and Insect Scorecard are designed for research, but also are ideal for the more progressive producers. These are to be used during the peak growing season (1-2 times per month).
The Pecan Research Strategy team at Noble is here to help answer any questions and walk you through the process of testing and submitting scorecards. Feel free to reach out to one of the team members with any questions or issues.
Research Associate
Pecan systems researcher with years of orchard management experience
(580) 221-0870 | aebridges@noble.org
Systems Researcher
Plant pathologist specializing in pecan scab
(919) 349-1574 | ndcharlton@noble.org
Sr. Research Associate
Biochemist with experience in studying nutrient cycling and microbes
(580) 630-1825 | lbjones@noble.org
Research associate
Biologist with experience in pecan research
(580) 504-2807 | ldputman@noble.org
Team Product Owner
Ensures our research strategies are on track to create products that help producers
(580) 220-8971 | slnorton@noble.org
Research Associate
Pecan systems researcher with years
of orchard management experience
(580) 677-1589 | mdproctor@noble.org
Pecan and Specialty Agriculture Systems Manager
Senior Pecan Specialist
Sample | Test Type | Test |
Soil Health | Soil Chemistry | Haney test |
Soil microbes | PLFA DNA Sequencing FSMA (soil pathogens) |
|
Tree Health | Leaf Samples | Leaf chemistry |
Insects and pests | Scorecard | |
Disease | Scorecard | |
Profitability | Economics | Expenses and revenue |
Nut Health | Marketing opportunities | Nut nutritive value |