The basics of macadamia harvesting

“How are macadamias harvested?” It’s the most common question I get. Here’s one for people new to macadamias. The end screen links to videos of actual harvesting taking place on Nutkin Farm.

[@mattikelby5571]

Hi Daniel, it’s nice to see your acknowledging that macadamias can handle water, if it goes away. The mounding does not do anything once that soil reaches an ongoing saturation point as observed in 2022, variety and localised soil conditions appear to contribute to tree death from my observations.

[@nutkinfarm]

2022 sure taught us a lot. I was more amused that in 1976 farmers were told to not let macadamias even fall on the ground!

[@mattikelby5571]

@@nutkinfarm they didn’t know what was going on back then

[@trentneumann5788]

One of our farms sent 2 trucks to marquis it came back at 16% and 18%, thankfully the farm I'm on the worst so far is 4% but we are now below 1%.

[@nutkinfarm]

Ouch Trent. That’s a large reject percentage. What specifically was the reject coming from? Immaturity?

[@trentneumann5788]

@nutkinfarm that was about 7% the rest was insect damage and black nut. They race through 100 tonnes a day they need to slow down and do it properly or install more sorting tables. Also, it doesn't help when 1 harvester can pick up over 15t a day. Plus, we have more trees coming into production, but the sheds aren't getting upgraded to handle the load.

[@brettrayner3469]

How does all that leaf lotter on the floor interfere with harvesting? Does that clog up the finger wheels?

[@nutkinfarm]

Hi Brett. The leaf litter certainly can be a pest with harvesters. The wheel design scrapes a lot of it off but eventually it can clog up. At that point the operator stops harvesting and manually pulls out the build-up. After harvests it’s often worth going over the blocks with a mower just to break leaves up and minimise downtime on the next round.