Today, Wagner’s family still operates the dairy in addition to their almond orchards. The California dairy industry will use most of the two billion pounds of almond shells produced this year for bedding. However, Wagner and others are concerned about the declining number of California dairies – good motivation for opening new and potentially more lucrative markets for almond shells. The search for higher value uses of almond coproducts also aligns’ with the industry’s Almond Orchard 2025 Goal to achieve zero waste in the orchard while putting everything grown to optimal use. Wagner’s work builds upon existing collaboration between ABC and USDA to explore new uses and markets for almond hulls and shells.
Building a supply chain from scratch
On his drive home from the seminar, Wagner called his tire salesman who then connected him with Holz Rubber in Lodi. After presenting Holz with the details of the project, the company agreed to manufacture a small number of shaker pads for testing. But this was only the very beginning of the process for Wagner. Holz was willing to make the shaker pads, but they don’t make the rubber compounds that are used to mold their products. They provided Wagner with contact information for some compound formulators that might be willing to utilize TAS in a limited run.
Top: When Wagner tested the TAS shaker pads during harvest, he found that while they performed well, they did generate slightly more heat than the control rubber shaker pads. Left: The finished product: a TAS shaker pad.
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