Equipment Can Reduce Almond Harvest Dust

A Company in Tulare has equipment that will shake almond trees and reduce dust during the process. It's all part of the Almond Board of California's goal of reducing dust by 50% by 2025.

Scott Hermann is General Manager with Tol Inc., in Tulare, which manufactures the equipment.

“The long-term goal of the Almond Board of California is to eventually move to an off-ground harvest, meaning then that the almond crop never hits the ground,” said Hermann.

“And right now, our Twin D shakers are there ready to do that at this moment. In their current configuration, we simply remove the conveyor and the framework that generates the windrow, and we can attach a bulk cart or bins to the back of the machine and put the harvested crop in that and haul them off right out of the orchard, right from the beginning,” Hermann said.

And it's really better than that, according to Hermann.

Not only can we help meet the Almond Board’s goal today? But I think we're also very prepared for the future direction that the almond industry is going.

And even another benefit according to Hermann. “Right now, if a grower has both pistachios and almonds, they're using two separate types of shakers to harvest those nuts, the Twin D can do both the almonds and the pistachios. And we can also go in and shake and walnuts, we can do prunes as well and pecans depending on the tree size and age. So just a lot of added benefits in addition to just reducing the dust.”

“And I think one of the best things is that through the elimination of the sweeping, we can reduce the grower's cost to harvest by approximately 30%. So, I think it's a win-win,” Hermann said.