The Texas Bucket List - Royalty Pecan Farms
We pick up a few tasty treats from the Royalty Pecan Farms in the Brazos Valley. With its beautiful location and delicious delicacies just exploring this farm is one shell of an of experience.
Orchard Minute at Royalty Pecan Farms | Part 1
Welcome to Royalty Pecan Farms! This video is the first in a series that will walk you through the process of harvesting pecans.
It's early October, and a lot has to happen before we can begin shaking trees. Today we're mowing the ground, picking up limbs, and creating an environment that's conducive for our ground harvest equipment to come back and pick the pecans up once they are shaken to the ground.
As you can see from this video, the pecans are not quite ready. They're still in the green shuck, but if you pinch the ends of that shuck, it opens right up. When about 80% or more of the pecan clusters are open, we'll begin shaking the trees.
Next time: Bird calls in the orchard ...
Host: Andy Sherrod • Orchard Manager at Royalty Pecan Farms • Caldwell, Texas
Orchard Minute at Royalty Pecan Farms | Part 2
Visit for more info. Part 2 of our Orchard Minute web series shows you one of the natural and humane ways we handle a major threat to our pecan crop: crows.
Transcript:
Today, what I want to show you are some electronic devices that we use to deter crows, a detrimental pest during the pecan harvest. These electronic units are powered by the sun using solar panels. The speakers are mounted above, fifty feet in the air, approximately 10 feet above the tree canopy so the sound can travel.
We have 23 of these units around the perimeter of the orchard creating an auditory barrier. So, when the crow scouts approach, they hear the sounds, they think of danger, and they fly away to safer feeding grounds, never alerting the remainder of the flock of this potential food source.
These bird calls are recorded on computer chips. The chip shown in this video has several crow and raven distress calls, several raptors, and even some birds that are not indigenous to this area.
There's a photo cell on this unit that allows it to power down at night to conserve energy. Then in the morning, it comes back on and plays all day long. These calls go off throughout the day, repeating about a minute apart.
So in future videos, when we're talking to you about different aspects of the pecan harvest and you hear these calls in the background, now you'll know what they are.
Tune in again soon for more videos!
Host: Andy Sherrod • Orchard Manager at Royalty Pecan Farms • Caldwell, Texas
Orchard Minute at Royalty Pecan Farms | Part 3
Visit for more info. This video explains one of the ways we use sustainable pest management to keep wildlife from harming our pecan crop.
Transcript:
Welcome back to Royalty Pecan Farms. There are two pests that we have to contend with during harvest: crows and hogs.
The crows fly in during the day and extract pecans from the trees or off the ground. The hogs come in at night. Not only do they feed on pecans, but they destroy the ground underneath the trees, making it impossible for us to harvest the remainder of the crop with our equipment.
The crows are deterred with an auditory barrier, and you can hear that playing in the background of this video. The company that created this system is having us experiment with a similar piece of equipment to deter hogs. Like the system for deterring birds, this unit is powered by the sun, and a photo cell allows the recordings to play only at night.
The particular recording we’re using is of a hog and dog fighting. These recordings play all night long, and we have several of these units in the orchard. The idea is to create a wall or barrier designed to deter the hogs and push them off into a different area.
These units have been operating for about a week, and so far they've worked. If they continue to be successful, not only will it be a benefit to pecan farmers, but to row crop farmers and ranchers as well.
Thank you for your interest in Royalty Pecan Farms! Tune in again for another video and check out more photos and info on our blog at RoyaltyPecans.com.
Host: Andy Sherrod • Orchard Manager at Royalty Pecan Farms • Caldwell, Texas
Sliced Open Pecan Shows Water Stage of Development
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Pecans in Water Stage | See how pecans develop during the end of the Growing Season at Royalty Pecan Farms. When pecans are in the water stage, the pecan kernel (or what will become the kernel) is actually liquid water. As the pecans continue to grow, this water will gradually thicken, and they will enter the dough stage by the end of the month. As this happens, the shell starts to form and harden. In central Texas this shell hardening begins about mid August. So, if you have a few trees of your own, it is wise to pour on the water throughout the month of August so as to increase size.
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Expanded hemp farming approved in South Carolina
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Words at War: Lifeline / Lend Lease Weapon for Victory / The Navy Hunts the CGR 3070
The United States Merchant Marine is the fleet of U.S. civilian-owned merchant vessels, operated by either the government or the private sector, that engage in commerce or transportation of goods and services in and out of the navigable waters of the United States. The Merchant Marine is responsible for transporting cargo and passengers during peace time. In time of war, the Merchant Marine is an auxiliary to the Navy, and can be called upon to deliver troops and supplies for the military.
Merchant mariners move cargo and passengers between nations and within the United States, operate and maintain deep-sea merchant ships, tugboats, towboats, ferries, dredges, excursion vessels, and other waterborne craft on the oceans, the Great Lakes, rivers, canals, harbors, and other waterways.
As of 2006, the United States merchant fleet numbered 465 ships[2] and approximately 100,000 members. Seven hundred ships owned by American interests but registered, or flagged, in other countries are not included in this number.
The federal government maintains fleets of merchant ships via organizations such as Military Sealift Command and the National Defense Reserve Fleet. In 2004, the federal government employed approximately 5% of all American water transportation workers.[3]
In the 19th and 20th centuries, various laws fundamentally changed the course of American merchant shipping. These laws put an end to common practices such as flogging and shanghaiing, and increased shipboard safety and living standards. The United States Merchant Marine is also governed by several international conventions to promote safety and prevent pollution.
The merchant marine is a civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Navy, but not a uniformed service, except in times of war when, in accordance with the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, mariners are considered military personnel. In a time of national emergency, the President can permanently seize any merchant marine vessel in return for fair compensation, or commandeer it for temporary use with no compensation if returned in reasonable condition.
Mariners are well represented in the visual arts. Merchant seaman Johnny Craig was already a working comic book artist before he joined up, but Ernie Schroeder would not start drawing comics until after returning home from World War II. Seaman Haskell Wexler won two Academy Awards, the latter for a biography of his shipmate Woody Guthrie.
Merchant sailors have also made a splash in the world of sport. Drew Bundini Brown was Muhammad Ali's assistant trainer and cornerman, and Joe Gold went made his fortune as the bodybuilding and fitness guru of Gold's Gym. In football, Dan Devine and Heisman Trophy winner Frank Sinkwich excelled. Seamen Jim Bagby, Jr. and Charlie Keller played in Major League Baseball. In track and field, seamen Cornelius Johnson and Jim Thorpe both won Olympic medals, though Thorpe did not get his until thirty years after his death.
Writers Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Ralph Ellison, Herman Melville, and Jack Vance and were merchant mariners, as were prominent members of the Beat movement: Allen Ginsberg, Herbert Huncke, Bob Kaufman, Jack Kerouac, and Dave Van Ronk. Peter Baynham, the coauthor of the film Borat, and Donn Pearce, who wrote the movie Cool Hand Luke, were formerly merchant mariners. Filmmaker Oliver Stone won multiple Academy Awards.
WWII-era merchant mariners played well-known television characters. The list includes Raymond Bailey (who played Milburn Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies); Peter Falk (who played the title character on Columbo); James Garner (who played Jim Rockford on The Rockford Files); Jack Lord (who played Steve McGarrett on the original Hawaii Five-0); Carroll O'Connor (who played Archie Bunker on All in the Family); Denver Pyle (who played Uncle Jesse Duke on The Dukes of Hazzard); and Clint Walker (who played Cheyenne Bodie on Cheyenne).
Songwriter and lyricist Jack Lawrence was a mariner during World War II and wrote the official United States Merchant Marine song, Heave Ho! My Lads, Heave Ho! while a young lieutenant stationed at Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, in 1943.
Writer/businessman Robert Kiyosaki claimed to have been a mariner.
Paul Teutul, Sr., the founder of Orange County Choppers and Orange County Ironworks, was a merchant mariner during the Vietnam War.