By
RICHARD T. ESTRADA
BEE STAFF WRITER
(Modbee.com
The
days are vanishing when almond growers can light a match to a pile of brush and
see their problems go up in smoke.
With
the San Joaquin Valley's new air-quality regulations limiting agriculture's
ability to burn, the hunt is on for an alternative.
"We've
got to find some way to get rid of the brush that doesn't break the
farmers," Fresno almond grower Joe Campos said.
While
some farmers can use a chipping machine to cut dead branches, then spread the
half-dollar sized pieces across the orchard, almond growers can't.
They
need a clean orchard floor so they can sweep up their crop each fall. Wood chips
don't biodegrade quickly enough, and separating chips from almonds would be
expensive for growers.
Modesto
farmer Guiseppe Di Anna says he has the solution.
"We've
developed a shredder, rather than a chipper, which makes all the
difference," said Di Anna, who invested about $100,000 in his first
machine. "The material breaks down quickly enough so it doesn't interfere
with the next harvest."
Campos,
whose operation includes thousands of acres of almonds, is endorsing the
process.
"We
had him shred about 1,000 acres, but when we saw how well it worked, we had him
keep going," Campos said. By the time he was done, Di Anna had shredded
prunings from 2,700 acres.
"We
hired him out of necessity," Campos said. "We had a lot of brush after
pruning, and there were no burn days coming up."
Di
Anna spent five years developing his shredder before making his first machine
last year.
Rollers
in front of the tractor pull branches to the grinder, which tears and rips at
the wood before spitting out fabric-like material. That spreads across the
orchard floor like a carpet.
There
are other machines that shred brush, but Campos hasn't seen any that leave
behind such a sheer material that can easily be integrated back into the soil.
"If
there was, we would have been using it," Campos said.
Di
Anna just finished building his second shredder, increasing the horsepower from
175 to 225.
"The
new engine allows us to cover more ground, and speed is important," said Di
Anna, who owns Di Anna Mechanical Fruit and Nut Harvesting. "Pruning isn't
done until the harvest is done and rain isn't far behind."
Di
Anna's first machine covers four to six acres an hour, while the new model
shreds six to eight acres an hour. The prototype shredded about 7,500 acres of
almond prunings last fall, and Di Anna said he will have three, possibly four,
machines ready for the upcoming season.
There's
little chance of saturating the market with shredders: California has about
550,000 acres of almonds.
While
treefruit is picked direct from the tree, almonds are knocked loose and remain
on the ground for days to dry. Tractors then come through to sweep the nuts into
rows and collect them.
Shredding
is effective, Campos said, because much of the material biodegrades by the
following spring. By harvest, there's no indication the material was there.
Di
Anna's fee is $200 per hour, so a grower would pay about $1,200 to shred a
40-acre orchard.
"It
obviously costs more to shred than it would to burn, but it's getting to the
point where we might not have any choice but to shred," Campos said.
"If it helps improve air quality, though, it's good for all of us in the
valley."
There
are other benefits, too.
As
the material disintegrates, it carries nutrients into the soil, improving the
orchard's health.
"The
fertilizer we applied to the trees last summer goes right back into the
soil," Campos said.
Bee
staff writer Richard T. Estrada can be reached at 578-2316 or restrada@modbee.com.
http://www.modbee.com/ag/story/6018294p-6974079c.html