Walnut harvest 1

A 1979 OMC Shaker operated by Craig Love.

Walnut harvest has begun. In some orchards they started more than a week ago but our first day was Monday.

The first thing to do is to shake the trees. When driving by an orchard soon to be harvested, it certainly looks like a lot of nuts on the ground. Even so, it is still necessary to shake all the trees in order to get most of the nuts.

In the past, say before 1950, most walnut trees were shook by hand. Workers would swat the branches with long bamboo poles. Other workers would climb the trees and attempt to bounce up and down on the limbs to get the nuts to come down.

In those days the orchards were generally smaller, with blocks of different varieties taking up only five or ten acres. Labor was cheap in then, which was a good thing because it took a lot of workers to shake an orchard.

The first mechanical shakers were contraptions that attached to the back of a tractor. They had a long arm (15 or 20 feet) with a hook that would catch a large branch. The power was engaged and the arm rapidly pulled back and forth against the branch, thus shaking down the walnuts.

It actually shook the trees fairly well, if the branches were not too large. But it was time-consuming to have to reposition the tractor for each branch and the hook could do a lot of damage to the branches if not handled just right. Plus, a team of workers were needed to rake the nuts out of the way so the tractor could move without running over them.

About 1965 or so the first self-propelled hydraulic shakers were produced. These were a great improvement over the older systems. They were built on pickup chassis modified to hold the shaker apparatus. They were driven right up to the tree and the limbs were grabbed with a hydraulically-operated clamp.

The shaking was done with a hydraulic motor which moved rotating weights via a long belt. The wheels had rotating sweepers to keep from running over nuts. The first ones were not too effective, but the idea has been continually improved upon since.

The shakers of today bear some similarity to the older ones but are greatly improved. The most striking difference is that the newer shaker models are on three wheels instead of four. This gives them greatly improved maneuverability. And, because labor costs today are so much higher than in the past and technology is comparatively much cheaper than it used to be, every effort is made to automate and reduce labor requirements.

The cabs are air-conditioned and sound insulated with complete stereo systems. The shaker pads are self-lubricating and water cooled so that the operator does not have to get out and grease and change them every 20 minutes or so. It is said that one of the newer air-conditioned shakers is as effective as two of the old ones. There are new models of shakers out now, one of which is called “The Bullet,” that can shake five to seven trees a minute!

Our shaker is a 1979 model, built by OMC Corporation. It has the three-wheel stance instead of the older four-wheel types, and is fully hydraulic. It does not have an air conditioned cab, however, which at least is one less thing to have to repair.

The operator is separated from the engine only by a piece of 3/4-inch plywood. This makes this machine rather loud and hot to run. It has a hydraulic system for the shaking which also runs an older style of wheel sweeps. This shaker works out well for our trees, which are older and very large.

It takes a large farming operation to be able to afford and utilize a new shaker. We can take a little extra time and still be able to use our older shaker.

We will share more about the process of walnut harvest next time.