At the American Pecan Council and American Pecan Promotion Board Meetings in Dallas, Senior Farm and Ranch Broadcaster Ron Hays had the chance to visit with the manager of pecan systems at the Noble Research Institute, Charles Rohla.
“Right now, we are focusing on developing courses,” Rohla said. “We have been approved to start working on developing regenerative pecan courses and research related to pecans and also silvopasture, which involves any kind of tree.”
Beginning in March, Rohla said the Noble Research Institute is going to start working on meeting with growers focusing on soil health management. Rohla said he plans to have discussions with growers to learn more about the different soil health management principles they are implementing on their properties.
“Also, for me, the big question is why they are going away from traditional management and what has pushed them,” Rohla said. “A lot of them have mentioned input costs, but also, a lot of growers are more focused on the health of their soil, realizing that our typical management has led to problems, and their thoughts are that a lot of those problems are because of the type of management they have used in the past.”
When it comes to regenerative management, Rohla said producers can still be extremely profitable.
“The challenges I see with a lot of producers is we have been taught year after year to maximize our production,” Rohla said.
Being regenerative, Rohla said, means growers must minimize inputs while maximizing profitability. For pecan growers, Rohla said a good start would be following soil health principles, minimizing tillage, implementing diverse cover crops or forage, minimizing disturbance, and integrating livestock to add microbes into the soil.
“Focus on soil health and build that population of microbes that can feed our trees,” Rohla said. “For so many years, we have been managing pecans or any kind of orchards as a row crop. A row crop is usually a grass species that wants more bacteria in the soil. Trees want fungi.”
Rohla said integrating livestock into native pecan orchards in Oklahoma is a great way to diversify an operation and generate more revenue.
“That is how we are going to be sustainable going forward,” Rohla said.
Rohla said the Noble Research Institute has a pecan research team that is conducting long-term research with growers in Texas and Oklahoma, looking at how the producer’s management impacts soil health.
“We have producers that are managing their orchards regeneratively, following soil health principles, and producers that are grazing, some that are not grazing, but also highly chemical or input related orchards and seeing how that management impacts the health of the soil and their economics,” Rohla said.
