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'We really dodged a bullet': Central Georgia farmers say lack of severe weather helped pecan crop

The pecan crop quality is very good this year with loaded trees.

PEACH COUNTY, Ga. — After several years of getting slammed by storms at the worst possible time, things seem to be looking up for farmers this year.

Lane Southern Orchards farm manager Phillip Rigdon says that they really lucked out this season.

"You know, this year we really dodged a bullet with the hurricanes and most of the pecans in there have a really heavy crop. We have gotten some rain through the storms, but not a lot of wind," Rigdon said.

He says avoiding high winds is big.

"We had a lot of broken limbs, but it would've been a lot worse had we gotten winds from the hurricane," Rigdon said.

Pecan harvesting starts with a "tree shaker."

"Shake the pecans, then we have blowers and sweepers that physically sweep the nuts and blow them out of the tree road to get them out of the middles," said Rigdon. "Then we have harvesters and with a v-sweeper, the pecans are loaded into the truck and transported to the cleaning plant."

He says that the crop quality is very good this year with loaded trees and he's thankful for that.

"We worked hard all year and this is a really enjoyable time to see the fruits of our labor," he said.

Rigdon says that the time taken to harvest usually depends on the length of the field.

He says he and his team will keep working hard on the harvest so you can enjoy the fruits of their labor, too. 

The pecan harvesting season ends in early December.

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