2. If you’ve already shaken and the almonds are on the ground, keep them flat. Don’t sweep them up until they’ve had a chance to dry. Sweeping wet nuts onto wet soil won’t help them dry; it usually does the opposite. 3. If the nuts are already in the windrows, pick them up and put them down. Run the crop through a conditioner to remove leaves, soil, and other debris that holds moisture. If a conditioner isn’t available, taking a pass with a harvester then spreading the crop back out can be better than letting it sit in a tight, wet windrow. 4. Remember: moisture is obvious, but heat is often the bigger problem. Microbial activity in a wet windrow, trailer or stockpile can generate heat. That heat can quickly drive quality losses in the form of concealed damage! Remember one simple rule: once you pick up wet almonds, you must keep them in motion. High moisture almonds cannot safely stay in trailers or stockpiles for any length of time as heat will quickly ruin them. 5. Communicate early. Keep your huller and your regional manager in the loop if you’re bringing in wet product so we can help you navigate next steps, including whether a load should go to dryers. So, once the product is successfully delivered to Blue Diamond Growers , what happens next? Before your product makes it to the test room, the first step is sampling at delivery. A sample is taken from a continuous flow that represents the entire load. This approach provides one of the most random and fair samples we can pull for that delivery. Sample size also varies with the size of the load; larger deliveries require larger samples. Once the sample arrives at the test room, it’s randomly reduced and split into two parts: a test sample used for the initial grading, and a reference sample that is held on site in case you request a retest of the original grade. To establish a grade, the test sample is assessed by a grader inside the test room. The grader is trained to identify rejects such as NOW damage, brown spot,
Sample Division by Mel Machado
and ant damage. They also separate out chipped and scratched kernels, foreign material, and doubles. After each component is identified, we determine the weight of each category and enter those weights into our payment system. We use gram weights rather than ounces because it’s a more precise unit of measurement (there are 28.3 grams in an ounce). Those weights are used to calculate the percentages you see on your delivery statement. As you know, you’re paid on Total Good Meat Weight , and quality adjustments (premiums or deductions) are driven by the percentages of rejects, foreign material, chipped and scratched, and doubles. For detailed grading practices and standards, please refer to the current Crop Delivery Guide for the applicable crop year. We hope this helps answer some of the questions about what happens to your product once we receive it. If you have any questions about your deliveries during this year’s harvest, please reach out to your regional manager. We’re your best resource for spotting issues early, troubleshooting quickly, and helping you keep your quality where it needs to be.
Trent Voss, Sr. Regional Manager, Blue Diamond Growers
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MAY–JUNE 2026
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