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Nice little video there. I live about 5 blocks away from a filbert (hazelnut) drying operation and have known that family my whole life. They're just about done with this year's harvest now.
Right out of college I worked for the State of Oregon Ag Statistical Service measuring the filbert crop before harvest began. A lot of big out of state money investing in the crop these days. Hundreds of thousands of new acres being planted.
Definitely some work for ADC beaver guys around the orchards in the last few years.
I have 7 varieties of blight resistant hazelnuts. Minnesota, Wisconsin, New York and Michigan will continue to take more of Oregon's hazelnut market with American/European hybrid hazelnuts. A lot of superior, new varieties are being discovered.
In Oregon rather than being "discovered" they're being bred for blight resistance. The germ plasm repository has hazels from all over the world with varying characteristics including blight resistance.
California ground squirrels like to hoard the nuts, I was told by one farmer that once I trapped he gained 5 rows of nuts in the bad areas. Some rows are close to a mile in length.
Don’t worry Newhouse I can’t stand them either but wildlife loves them, I really thought the pickup machinery was pretty neat, and I always like seeing how other things are raised, that blight seems nasty but like the guy said today they have fungicides and know what to do to keep the tree alive.
Even with coppers, etc you can't keep Barcelonas or Ennis alive for too long. The new wave of blight resistant cultivars have a lot going for them.
As far as machinery goes we've come a long way. I recall when men with push brooms had to sweep under the trees to the aisles for a machine to pick nuts up. It's all accomplished with blowers and vacuums now. Nobody has to get down off a tractor any more.
Interesting video. I did not know the virus jumped to the new variety. My wife grew up on a filbert farm. The entire street was owned by the family. Half of the family sold off to Metro and moved up to Alaska and Metro ran a grinder through the 330 acres and turned it all into a hay field. I don't know how the Metro could fund purchasing that much property that far from the city and spending that much money on it, but that your tax money at work. The couple of acres of filberts that they have left are slowly succumbing to diseases. We go out and pick up a couple of buckets each fall.
Good for you Joel! I remember one time that Jock Gibson (Lochmead) had me come over to their filbert orchard because he was convinced nutrias were chewing on the trees. I told him that it had to be beavers.
I started a residential beaver job today, need to get it done fast. Planning on going elk hunting tomorrow but it will have to wait a day or two. Looks to be an easy one, they keep building a (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) the guy takes it out next day it’s bigger than ever.