Andrew (L) and Steve (R) Moeller with their regional manager, Kenny Miyamoto (C)
Andrew Moeller explaining differences in almond varieties to Blue Diamond’s Jillian Luna while Kenny Miyamoto looks on
want to run the farm, great! They both wanted to continue farming, and they’ve learned how to do it all. They handle repairs, reports, accounting, fabrication, installations, building and maintenance, as well as the day-to-day farming. We do as much as we can ourselves to cut back on costs, so it’s been a blessing to have them both. They are very good at what they do. So yeah, it comes down to the dollars. We were already planting cover crops, so if you’re going to pay me to do that, I might as well take advantage of whatever I can and do the little extra work to get the extra money. AF: Do you feel like it’s been worthwhile doing the extra work for OSIP and CSG ? SM: Yes, but you need to do certain things. You must consider when to terminate your cover crop, what the impacts are to mowing vegetation in the middles, and how it impacts you at harvest. Conditioning the almonds once they are in windrows can be an important consideration. Conditioners remove most of the extraneous wood, soil and debris from the crop prior to picking up. My son, Andrew, said that in one 40-acre field he cut out three hours of picking up time by using a conditioner. The conditioner can make all the difference in the world when picking up. AF: Regarding the implementation of the practices for OSIP and the USDA CSG grant, which have been the easiest and hardest and what practices do you anticipate will have long term agronomic benefits ? SM: The hardest part of the OSIP implementation is the paperwork. We were already doing most of the cover crop
work. A lot of growers already focus on water penetration, soil revitalization and caring for the bees. But you must get it registered in the program. So, we do the paperwork because we get paid for doing it. If I can get paid per acre to do the cover crop, which I'm already doing now, and Blue Diamond is going to buy me the seed, then why not ? It does cause problems at harvest, though. AF: What are the problems with cover crop at harvest ? SM: Getting the cover crop seed to germinate at the proper time is the first challenge. For a lot of people, that means relying on rainfall. If your irrigation system can adequately cover the middles, you can irrigate the crop up. Orchards using drip irrigation will not be able to get water to the middles and you’re forced to rely on winter rainfall. The next challenge is when to terminate the cover crop. Obviously, you want the cover crop to bloom so you have food for the bees prior to the start of the almond bloom. If you let the cover crop grow through the almond bloom, it can get pretty tall, depending on what you planted. You’ll want to time the termination of the cover crop to have a clean orchard floor in time for harvest. It can be hard to get the cover crop to dry and deteriorate in time. Gophers can be a challenge too. The gophers will feed on the cover crop roots, and the tall cover crop plants will hide their mounds, making it difficult to see and maintain them. So, they can be quite damaging to the trees’ root systems. AF: How has the farm benefited from OSIP ? And what benefits do you see for the next generation of almond farmers, this fifth generation of farming Moellers who are being trained up ?
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SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2024
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