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Pecans in Agriculture with Blair Krebs · Conservation Stories

• 0:10
  Speaker A: Hello, friends, and welcome back to another edition of Conservation Stories. This is Tillery Timmons Sims here again to introduce you to another friend of mine. Her name is Blair Krebs. Blair is in the business of pecans. And before we go any further, do we say pecans or pecans?
• 0:32
  Speaker B: Well, it depends on where you're at. My blanket answer is always, it doesn't matter how you say it as long as you're eating them. But I'm also a proud Texan and Texas are where pecans are native to Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and such like that. And we say all that area says pecans, so I just say where it's native is. Is how you say it.
• 0:53
  Speaker A: There you go. Okay, that sounds great. So, Blair, tell us about your organization and a little bit about how you got in that position.
• 1:05
  Speaker B: So I'm with the Texas Pecan Growers association and we've been around since 1921. So just several years ago, we celebrated our 100 year anniversary. We handle. I. I jokingly always say it's whatever the producers don't have time to do, which is partially true because they keep busy lives growing pecans and the things we're promoting. But we do a lot of promotion, advocacy work, education and research. So we support all those causes and just try to get done with the grower needs. We are located in Bryan, Texas, and we're not associated with Texas A and M, but we just have been here for many years because of the work, the joint work between the two.
• 1:45
  Speaker A: Last year you took us me in a cohort with the Texas Ag Lifetime Leadership Program, which I know you were in cohort 17 and I'm an 18. That was so interesting to me. Like I didn't understand a lot about rootstock and, you know, things like that. So I know that one of the things I remember is that there's certain types of trees that are grown like in East Texas, and then there's other types of trees that are grown where we are, which is more of an arid or semi arid condition.
• 2:16
  Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So it's. Pecans are grown in 15 states across the nation and then also in Mexico, South Africa, South America, Australia. But they're native to the United States. And Texas has an interesting position and it's kind of the convergence points of pecan management between east and west. So you look at East Texas and it looks a lot like the production you see in Louisiana and Georgia and such. Central Texas is its own, I always call it its own beast. It kind of has its own production ways. And then you get to West Texas, and it looks like. It looks like New Mexico and Arizona. So we. We are just convergence points for all type of management. So all different varieties are better suited for each type of production region. Of course, in the east, we face more. You, of course, get good amount of water. But though with water, it can create disease issues and things like that. So a different trees adapt better to that. And then, of course, we have native production all over the state, whether it's actually people harvesting those natives or it's in someone's backyard or in parks or anything else.
• 3:18
  Speaker A: Do you guys hear from a lot of those folks? Because, I mean, like, every other person has a pecan tree. It feels like if you got trees, you got a pecan.
• 3:25
  Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, we do hear a lot from the backyard people. They always. And it's great. And what's great about hearing from those people is they're always very passionate about their pecan tree. And I mean, that's a good thing. Right? They're honoring that tree. So we like that they are wanting to make sure that their pecan tree is healthy. And then we're also very lucky in the sense that we have a lot of small producers who are very successful in producing pecans and then selling directly to the public. We have a lot of people that sell them at farmers markets, retail stores, online. So we have large producers that are selling into the wholesale market, all the way down to small ones that are very successful.
• 4:03
  Speaker A: Okay, are y'all representing processors and growers? What is the vertical integration look like with pecans?
• 4:10
  Speaker B: Yeah, so we a lot of our pecan growers, so we're the Texas Pecan Growers Association. So there we're representing growers, but a lot of them are vertically integrated. Like I said, they're putting them into their stores, you know, retail operations. So we really try to help them with whatever. More recently, I've become the. Also the executive director for the National Pecan Sellers association, which is the processing arm of it. So our office is now going to be handling more of the processing stuff, too. But we do have experience with it because of our small producers that go direct to the public.
• 4:42
  Speaker A: Right, right. That's interesting. So tell me, but what are some stats about how much is grown in Texas and how much. How many trees do people have per acre and average size farm? Like, those kind of things? Some basic things.
• 4:57
  Speaker B: This is a. That's a question that's a thorn in my side, because we really don't have good data.
• 5:02
  Speaker A: Really.
• 5:02
  Speaker B: We've done. Yeah, it's you know, USDA comes out with production numbers, but our industry is always very suspect of those numbers. We just don't feel like they're accurate. And I think. And I'm not in a sense blaming usda, it's just that a lot of the pecans, when they go straight into the commerce, into the market, it's hard to track those, you know, because it's at all those small and medium producers and sell direct, it's hard to track those numbers. So it's really hard to get production. It's hard to get the number of trees and producers because it being a native crop. So, for example, we have a lot of producers who are also. They raise cattle and they run cattle under the trees, and they may only harvest every two to three years when there's a big crop. So do we count that into. Are they technically a pecan producer or are they not? You know, it's. It's. We have a lot of gray area for our production. I think it's the last satellite data that our national industry did, I think there was about 87 to 90,000 acres of improved variety pecan trees in the state of Texas, and they were estimating another. Between another 30 and 50,000 in native trees. But again, we don't. Again, whether those are even harvested or not is a question.
• 6:15
  Speaker A: Right, right. Yeah, that. So what does a good growing season look like for a pecan?
• 6:20
  Speaker B: Yeah, so if you start out the. I guess you'd start, you know, January, February, it's when the trees are. Have gone dormant and then you start to see. And again, this depends greatly on the region. You know, if you're in South Texas.
• 6:30
  Speaker A: Right. We're. We're. We're mostly. Our listeners are mostly up here, you know, in the. On the high plains.
• 6:36
  Speaker B: Okay. So most. So, yeah, that high plains and then out towards West Texas, they would be some of the last ones to bud out, generally. And the last harvest. So, you know, around the springtime is where they start to see a budding out. And then you'll start to get that early summer, you'll get the nut set so the nut is actually setting in the tree. And then the rest of the summer, it's. The pecan is actually filling out. That's why it's so important to have irrigation on your trees around that July, August, September, because it starts to fill out that nut for the part that we're actually eating and wanting to sell. And then again, depending where you're in state Texas from, basically, September through January is considered the harvest season. But if you're in the High Plains or West Texas, which, when I say West Texas, I generally mean basically the El Paso region, because that's actually the number one producing area in the state. It has the most production in the state. And they won't start harvesting until generally right after Thanksgiving or early December. And that's partly because they hope to get a freeze that will start to get, you know, temperatures dipping below for a certain amount of hours. That will knock the leaves off the tree and open those shucks for the pecans. And then you get to. It's a lot, a lot easier to harvest than if where there's trees and all that kind of mess in the way.
• 7:50
  Speaker A: Yeah. So do they, do they shake the trees? Yep.
• 7:54
  Speaker B: So we have big shakers that grab the trunk of the tree and vibrate it and then the pecans fall and then they come through and sweep them into rows and then they harvest them. Now, of course, if you're a small producer, you, you know that that kind of equipment is very expensive for any producer. But for a small producer, they may not be able to do it. So they'll have smaller shakers or, you know, just waiting till they drop. It's all different methods.
• 8:18
  Speaker A: Interesting. Yeah. Because that equipment's probably not cheap.
• 8:21
  Speaker B: No, it is not.
• 8:22
  Speaker A: So, you know, water here is a huge issue and we've, you know, we have gotten some great rain, but August and September, woohoo, you know, it's super, super hot. So how much, how much water do they, do they need to really produce?
• 8:39
  Speaker B: Well, it depends on your soil. And I hate that all my answers are like, it depends, it depends. But it is because pecan production is so varied across the state, we, you know, the AgriLife guys would give you probably specific number, and I don't have that off the top of my head, to be honest. Yeah, I mean, the pecan trees, I mean, they need water. They're a permanent crop. They've, you know, they've, they need more water than a lot of other crops than say, like cotton or wine grapes. But what I'll say is pecan trees generally. I mean, because they're native here, they're, they're good survivors, meaning they, they can survive a lot. But the issue being they won't produce a crop, of course, so if the tree would protect itself and lose its crop over the tree dying. But of course, in recent last two years, we've had a significant drought in Central Texas and then out towards other areas, and that drought has killed trees, big native trees, and Things like that, because there's just such extreme heat and drought. You can only last so long. So, yeah, water is an important part. And of course, like I said during that film, of course, it's not when Texas gets most of its water, so most of the time, people need to have irrigation. Some people do dry land, pecans, but for the most part, they would be irrigating their pecans.
• 9:55
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I know that's. That's true. Here we have family land that it was. It's actually the homestead. My. My maternal homestead. And it was. I had always been in row crops, but it got sold from the family several years ago, and now there's a lot of pecans there, which I think my grandparents would have loved, because, of course, when they, you know, built this house, they. As soon as they had the money, they put, you know, surrounded it in pecan trees.
• 10:20
  Speaker B: Yeah, well. And I'll say the. In. Yeah, I mean, it's a beautiful. Like I said, the novelty of it. I love that. Part of my job is we all have some kind of cultural connection, I feel like, to pecans. But we're also doing a lot because of, you know, the water needs of pecans. The industry and producers themselves are trying out a lot of methods, a lot of regenerative ag methods that will help consume water and keep the water in the soil, keep the soil cooler. You know, they're doing a lot of efforts to that changing over irrigation systems. A lot of people in West Texas will do flood irrigating, but they're converting over. Some of them are. And trying out different methods because we all know water is. It's gonna be huge. Yeah.
• 11:01
  Speaker A: Resource. For sure. For sure. Well, you do a lot of traveling or you do. Do you do traveling on behalf of your growers?
• 11:08
  Speaker B: Yeah, so we do. So I wear many hats in the pecan industry and. Yeah. So I travel when. I've worked with a lot with the Texas Department of Agriculture on promoting our pecans, whether it be in overseas food shows or bringing tours here or, you know, domestic promotions. And then I also. We run the trade publication for the industry and not just for Texas, but for the nation. It's called Pecan South Magazine.
• 11:33
  Speaker A: Oh, I've seen. Yeah.
• 11:35
  Speaker B: Yeah. Thank you. Well, we. I travel quite a bit to the other production region, so I spend quite a bit of time in Georgia and New Mexico and Oklahoma and all different places that are growing pecans.
• 11:44
  Speaker A: Wow. Do you. How many. How many. Do you have an idea how many.
• 11:48
  Speaker B: Growers we have across the country or the state? Across the state, across the state, I would say there's probably about a thousand growers, if I had to guess. But again, what did we find as a grower? Is it a cattleman that, you know. You know, so it's. It's Indian space. And that's just me personally thinking.
• 12:04
  Speaker A: Yes. Right.
• 12:05
  Speaker B: Because I know we have, you know, about 600 to 700 members. And then if you add on top of that the people that aren't members, that's what my guess would be.
• 12:12
  Speaker A: Does pecans have a checkoff program?
• 12:16
  Speaker B: We do. So we have a state level checkoff program and we do the work for that one as well. It's called Texas Pecan Board, and that's a state one. And then we also have a national checkoff program which is called. We have a federal marketing order, which is called American Pecan Council and a research and promotion board called American Pecan Promotion Board. And we're actually the first industry in the nation to have both.
• 12:42
  Speaker A: Really?
• 12:43
  Speaker B: Both the federal marketing. Yes, and the national. The both types of check off that are allowed in the US and they're both stationed in Fort Worth, Texas. That's where the headquarters is at. So they're here in Texas, which is great. But yeah, the reason we have both is we originally had a federal marketing order and then the industry. I decided to add the research and promotion because a lot of pecans come in from Mexico and come into the market. And the research and promotion board allows us to assess the pecans coming in from Mexico so that it goes then into the marketing efforts of those pecans as well.
• 13:15
  Speaker A: Do you want to explain the checkoff program or do you want me to, Blair?
• 13:18
  Speaker B: I mean, I can. Yeah. So a checkoff program, there's. There's many variations of it, but generally what I say is it's. You take a certain amount of money off the price of a product and then you put it into basically a big bank account for the industry. And then the industry uses, is it for marketing research or whatever that the board of directors or council members find to be fit to benefit the entire industry.
• 13:41
  Speaker A: And who's being assessed that fee? Is it the growers or is it processors?
• 13:47
  Speaker B: It's the handler. So we call it the handler. Yeah, so we call them the handler. And because there could be a middleman that is, you know, brokering the pecans to the processor and, you know, or selling. If you're selling directly to the consumer, you're considered a handler. So we. Yeah, we call it a handler. Of course, you know, many producers, of course. Would say, of course they're being then billed for the assessment. So, you know, I think it's, I'm even cautious to say, you know, it's not one person being, or one entity being assessed. Everyone in the industry is being assessed for, for the benefit of the industry.
• 14:21
  Speaker A: Right. And those programs have been controversial. We may have to do a podcast on those because those, they are interesting. And the whole reason they're called checkoffs, because they're really not. That's kind of our nickname for them. That, that's a whole, probably a whole podcast in itself.
• 14:37
  Speaker B: And ours are still, I mean, and I'll say ours are still controversial. We, we got our federal marketing order in 2016, and we got our research and promotion board in 2021. So ours are still relatively new. And you know, and, and, and I'll, you know, ag people, we're, we're, we want to see results. Right. And I don't blame them, you know, so that's, it's always. And I've seen this with other checkoff programs and then even the state one is, you know, if they're not seeing results, they're not going to be happy about engineering. Pretty vocal. So it's, you know, I think there's a lot of success stories with checkoff programs, but then there are other ones that people don't feel, that producers don't feel are their values. So it just, it's like anything. Some work maybe and some don't.
• 15:17
  Speaker A: Well, and people will be familiar with some of those other checkoff programs, like milk, it does a body good.
• 15:24
  Speaker B: And pork, the other white meat.
• 15:25
  Speaker A: Right. Beef is what's for dinner. Those type of things. Cotton, the fabric of our lives.
• 15:30
  Speaker B: And that's where we, as the pecan industry is. We are, we're, we're. Because ours are relatively new. You know, other tree nuts, such as almonds and walnuts, have had theirs for 40 years or more. So we're, we're playing catch up a lot on, on the industry and organizing. But I've been in the industry almost 20 years now, and it, and it's, it's definitely getting organized and, you know, making a better effort to work for the good of industry.
• 15:55
  Speaker A: That's a, that's great. That's great news. Yeah, we, and you probably did, did you meet with the almond board in California when you were in Tall. You guys were during COVID too. So you probably were limited in some of your meetings, but you did meet with them.
• 16:09
  Speaker B: Yeah, we did meet with them. Yeah. We, we met with Richard, who was the director at the time who just recently retired, and. And I had met with them previously on Some Other Things, just given, you know, fellow tree nuts and all. But, yeah, we did meet with them when I was in Tall there in Fresno.
• 16:23
  Speaker A: Yeah, that was an interesting experience, you know, being in California, but I felt like they were really, you know, they're really thinking ahead, like, how can we build out our plan for sustainability before we were told we have to build one out and told what it will be? You know, they're like, we. When they come after us, we want them to know, here's what we've done and here's the data.
• 16:46
  Speaker B: Absolutely. And they, you know, they have been. Because almonds are the biggest. The big guy and tree nuts, you know, as far as it goes. So they have. And then being in California, where water is such a, you know, such an issue, is they have been the one where you see a lot of media stories that, you know, coming out of almonds and such. So they have the led the way on the sustainability and stuff. And I think. And I mean, I know that other, like, for example, our industry is doing it, but getting organized behind you and putting a plan forward is something we're always, you know, looking to do, like, for that very reason. I also gave them a bag of pecans as their gift. So I kind of have to laugh. When I. When I gave the almond board a bag of pecans, I'm like, sorry, not sorry.
• 17:24
  Speaker A: Right, right. Yeah, that's very funny. Do. Do the tree nut industry, do y'all ever collaborate? We do.
• 17:30
  Speaker B: There's several. So one of the big groups is called International Nut Council. It's Inc. So you all come together. We have other. It's a lot of several other groups where it's all the nut industries working together. And there's a lot of health studies done where it's, you know, saying a handful of nuts helps you for this, you know, reason or shown to help you for this. And so, yes, they definitely work together. Of course it's competition, but are we the.
• 17:54
  Speaker A: We're the biggest growers. The largest grower. What. What's. What. What area, what region globally, and then in the U.S. yeah.
• 18:01
  Speaker B: So the U.S. so the U.S. so Texas is generally about third, and between Georgia and New Mexico, the top three are Georgia, New Mexico, Texas. Again, we're the only one that's native, but it fluctuates. And honestly, pecans move between a lot. And that's according to USDA numbers, too. So we don't know. I kind of get sick of the state battle on it. So it is what it is because we're all trying to work together on this. But the US Produces generally, in the past, the US has produced the most pecans, but Mexico in a lot of years will produce just as much as us. So we would be the two. North America would be the two largest producers. And then after that, you would see, like I said, South Africa, Australia in South America, Argentina, Brazil, China is starting to grow some, so you're seeing more production.
• 18:51
  Speaker A: But they're not native to there.
• 18:53
  Speaker B: They're only native to the southern tip of Illinois. And then you follow the Mississippi river down, and then the rivers that go out towards Texas and then the northern part of Mexico.
• 19:02
  Speaker A: Native plants are fascinating to me. And just the biologically, how they. How did they get started and how they have, you know, continue to evolve to the conditions is just amazing.
• 19:14
  Speaker B: They've found fossils thousands of years back of pecan trees. So they know for a fact that they have been here that whole time. And that's actually one, I think, one of really cool things. And maybe I'm a history nerd, but the. A lot of the varieties you talk about, pecans, are named after Native American tribes because Native Americans were the first harvesters. They would go along the rivers in Texas and they would collect them in the fall, and then that would help sustain their group of people through the winter. And they were, you know, they were so smart in the sense. They knew that pecan trees are alternate bearing, you know, meaning produce one year and not the other. So they would switch which river they would go to, knowing that that tree would produce one year and not the next. And that's. And again, so we name our varieties after Native American tribes. There's Comanche, Pawnee, Cheyenne. All those are named after. To honor that original harvesters.
• 20:07
  Speaker A: That's so fascinating. You know, there's a lot of talk about in what people will call indigenous practices, and that's kind of one of those things that people figured out a long, long time ago, how to harvest and. But probably also how to. How to treat those trees so that they would. Would have a harvest in two years and.
• 20:31
  Speaker B: Yep. And the word pecan actually comes means a nut that takes a stone to crack. Because if you look at native trees, they're just a lot harder shell. That's why we, of course, have done them proof with paper shell. And so the native ones are a little bit harder. So I'm not sure how they harm or how they crack them open, but I would imagine literally A stone and a stone, and you crack it open.
• 20:53
  Speaker A: Right, right. So, and that. That's another interesting topic, too, is. Is genetics. And, you know, there's all kinds of concerns about, you know, the modifications that take place inside the laboratory. But, you know, I'm sure you guys. I know for a fact you've been doing all kinds of genetic research and creating all kinds of varieties for years. And so talk. Talk to me just for a little bit about that, about what that looks like, because I know that when we were like, our trees here are a combination of rootstock from East Texas.
• 21:32
  Speaker B: A lot of the research is done at the USDA ars, which is Agricultural Research Service here, and it's actually right outside of College Station. It holds a national germplasm collection for pecans and hickories. So the pecan tree is a hickory. And the breeding that has been done is just like. I would say, just like dog breeding. We're basically mixing two pairs parents together to get a better tree. So it's not been. It's not like a GMO thing. It's. It's a breeding where we've. We've created trees. And there are over a thousand varieties of pecans. It's. It's insane how many there are, but generally speaking, there's about 30 or 40 that are wildly grown, better suited. And one of the more interesting facts that probably what you alluded to on the rootstock is a lot of people, when they get, like, say you get a pecan in its shell, they ask, can I plant this? And, you know, and yes, you can plant it, and it will become a pecan tree, but it's not going to become the pecan tree that that nut was. So if you take a Pawnee nut and plant it, it's not going to become a Pawnee tree. It's going to become a seedling. And then you would have to graft onto it the Pawnee wood to make it become a Pawnee tree.
• 22:40
  Speaker A: Yeah, that. That. That's what I thought was. Really. I just knew nothing about trees. That was my first real exposure to. I mean, I've heard grafting, and I know generally what that means. But, you know, for folks that might be listening that don't know what that means, what does that look like?
• 22:56
  Speaker B: So grafting is just taking, basically. I mean, the most simplistic explanation of it is taking the wood of the tree you're wanting and cutting into the current tree that's growing and then making a fuse together to make the other tree. So you do it generally when the trees are very young. Now, if you're buying a tree from a nursery or something, they've already done this hard part for you, because let me tell you, grafting is an art form. I've tried it before, and I was wildly unsuccessful with it. So it is. The nursery's already doing it for you, but it turns into then that tree that you're wanting. A lot of growers do do it themselves, but others just buy the nursery trees directly.
• 23:35
  Speaker A: Right. And that's what we saw was a nursery that had. They were in the process of doing all of that, and that was just fascinating. Fascinating. And to just see it done in that. I mean, with that many. It's a lot.
• 23:47
  Speaker B: Yep. And in our. We're lucky. I feel like, in a sense, that because we have so much genetic diversity in our pecans, because, you know, you get in trouble with other crops, you know, where you don't have any genetic diversity, it. A disease can wipe out the crop, any of that kind of thing. So we actually have already have a lot of genetic diversity. And then our researchers are actually working to preserve the genetic diversity from other hickory trees and native trees so that that can be inputted back into the trees and bred into them because they'll create a hardier tree and better, you know, better system.
• 24:20
  Speaker A: Right, right.
• 24:20
  Speaker B: But.
• 24:21
  Speaker A: But you also are able to. You can combine that hardiness with that soft shell.
• 24:26
  Speaker B: Yep, absolutely. And so that's what they want, to make sure they have all the genetics stored and available to. To make the best trees for the industry.
• 24:33
  Speaker A: That's amazing. And all that's. That's part of what comes out of the farm bill. Those at ARS funding, usda, ARS funding is part of the fund bill, Farm Bill, which, you know, there's a lot of talk about that right now, and I'm sure you guys are paying attention to what's going on there. The fact that we don't have one, and we should have had one by now, but people have a, you know, kind of a misunderstanding there because that's research that. That needs to be ongoing and it needs to be funded. But when you look at the farm bill, more than 80% of it goes to food programs, and they don't actually go to farms, research, or farmers or, you know, anything that's actually directly related to the production of food. Rather, the majority of it goes to, you know, giving people access to food, which I, you know, don't have any problems with people having access to food at all. You know, but I think it is A misunderstanding. When people hear it called the far, they assume that people like the pecan growers are getting, you know, you know, billions of dollars every year. But really, it's such a minuscule, minuscule amount of that bill.
• 25:43
  Speaker B: It is. And we have a lot of programs through it. We're like, for our crop insurance and everything else. We have been successful in recent years. We do a lot of advocacy work with our organization, and we have gotten a lot of additional funding to our research program, but that's been through the appropriations program, our system versus the actual farm bill itself. And we've been very lucky to work with some great representatives in the state and outside the state to get more funding for those programs. And it's been. It's been a game changer because it's brought young researchers to our station that are, you know, hungry to get the work done for producers and out meeting with them. And that just. That increase in funding has been just a world of benefit for our industry.
• 26:24
  Speaker A: Yeah. And that, I mean, and that's one of the benefits of having that, you know, your marketing program, which you're talking about funding from a different source, but still, you know, farmers, growers, processors are putting in some, and USDA is also putting in some, and that helps to really expand the funds that the farmers are able to put into research.
• 26:46
  Speaker B: Absolutely. It's a. It's a joint effort. It's the government funds. But then we. We do a lot of. We put a lot of personal funds from the industry as well as grant funding. We go after from different sources. So, yeah, for agriculture, I think it's a. It's a game of funding, always trying to figure out where we can get funds to get research or education or whatever it is.
• 27:07
  Speaker A: It's true.
• 27:08
  Speaker B: There's just not a lot going around.
• 27:09
  Speaker A: Yeah. And, you know, I just returned from Poland, and so we. We spent some time in Brussels learning about the eu and then the subsidies that the Polish farmers get, which is, you know, half of their equipment is subsidized by the eu, you know, and land purchasing is subsidized, you know, through the eu. I mean, there's so many. There's just so much support for their farmers financially, you know, but they've. They have been through, you know, a lot of things that we have never really suffered through. So I know that food security is really important to them.
• 27:45
  Speaker B: Yeah. And one, I'll say, and I've not mentioned this yet, but as of this past November, I became a pecan producer myself. My husband and I purchased land and we have currently have about 20 improved and native trees there and then we're planting more. So I can tell you now firsthand how hard it is to be a new producer. I mean just purchasing land in Texas in general, you know, we didn't inherit the land, we had to purchase it. And, and there's programs out there for people, young, younger people, I wasn't going to tell myself young, but younger people trying to get in agriculture and it's their programs are they need to be, they need to be looked at again is what I'll say. They're tough to get into. I know we didn't qualify for any of it. We qualified luckily for some assistance through the Texas Department of Agriculture. But some of the federal programs. It's very hard to begin new producer of any kind of crop in this.
• 28:43
  Speaker A: So let's talk about that. How much does it cost per acre to put in pecans?
• 28:47
  Speaker B: Well, and it depends on pecans, but let's see the numbers. Well, we are putting in. So we had to purchase the land. We're putting in irrigation lines. You put in the. Well, well, electric irrigation lines and then we're planting the trees and we're having to do it in three blocks because we can't afford to do it. Yeah. And so we will. And it takes. And the issue with I would say pecans and it being a permanent crop is, you know, if you plant. And I get why it is this way but you know, if you're working with a lender and you plant a crop and you get the, you know, if you, you get the, the thing you're going to sell, cotton, whatever corn, you're going to get it that year and you get to sell. Yeah, well, we're going to put pecan. Yeah, we're going to put pecan trees and it's going to be 10 years before we get any return on investment for that. So it's a scary proposition for these, you know, lender, whatever has. But then it makes really hard for people to get into the industry. And you know, my husband continued to like Minnie and Ag. We continue to work our day jobs so that we can afford to be producers.
• 29:49
  Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, but. Yeah, that's exactly right. And if you don't own a lot of land, you have to put in some type of high value crop because you know, how are you going to have any return on your investment? You know, you just, you just won't.
• 30:03
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 30:03
  Speaker A: And you know, just to give people an understanding wells and the electric and the irrigation, I mean it Just continues to increase and it's not, it's not, this is expensive here. But I know that when we were down where they're having to drill wells for the first time closer to the coast, those wells are costing, you know, upwards to half a million dollars.
• 30:26
  Speaker B: It's, it's insane. And you know, like I said, where we've seen successes with some grant programs through the Texas Farm Agriculture, you know, we applied for a young farmer grants and things like that and, and those are definitely a big help and we probably could not have done it without it. So I do want to give credit to those systems which have been beneficial to us and I'm sure everyone has their own story on it, but yeah, everything is just. It's hard to be involved.
• 30:49
  Speaker A: Part of the work that Sarah's been doing is, you know, trying to help some of these entities that have been formally been able to access some funds that can no longer do that in the state of Texas to be able to kind of maybe, you know, be the entity that, that provides the pass through for those grants because we don't mind talking about those diversity, equity and inclusion issues, you know. So anyway, so Blair, thank you so much for being here and being so informative and teaching me everything about pecans. And one thing I do know is that is my absolute favorite tree nut. There's, there's nothing else like it. It is like the equivalent almost of a really good steak, in my opinion. I mean, oh, wow. Sometimes they are so good, so good.
• 31:38
  Speaker B: You know, that you can get a really good steak and put a pecan chimichurri sauce on it and it is amazing you can mix your loves together.
• 31:46
  Speaker A: There we go. Well, thanks for joining us. I appreciate you giving us your time and friends, thanks for listening again to this episode of Conservation Stories and we look forward to visiting and having you.
• 31:59
  Speaker B: Join us next time.