AMARETTO ALMONDS
INDUSTRY NEWS
AMARETTO ALMONDS
AMARETTO Almonds stores its crop in bunkers covered by tarps . Farm manager Rob Cox said the ground preparation is important . “ It needs to be a proper limestone pad , contoured so the water runs away from the stockpile ,” he said . The company uses 560GSM tarps . “ They are more expensive , but do a better job and last about four or five years ,” Mr Cox said . Initially the tarps were secured by shuttles half full of water on six main points and then tyres went around the remaining perimeter . More recently the company has installed 1m tall concrete bunker walls , which can be moved with a telehandler . This enables the almond stockpile to be built higher , but Mr Cox said getting an elevator that stacks high enough has been a challenge . “ The top of our piles are curved and about five metres wide , instead of a triangle shape ,” he said . With the concrete walls , there ’ s no need for tyres as the tarps are secured with clamps and rails using a rattle gun . When necessary , Amaretto dries its almonds before
they are stored on-farm . This is done using an A frame structure that ’ s 25mm x25mm RHS , almonds are stacked 3 to 3.5m high . Amaretto uses burners from AGRIDRY in Toowoomba and works on dropping the moisture content by 1 % every 24 hours . The tarp is pulled off daily and the almonds in the dryer are buckraked , so they are mixed around and there ’ s a uniform reduction in moisture . During the 2024 harvest 1,500 tonnes of almonds were put through the dryer . This included Monterey that was harvested early . The drying equipment cost $ 150,000 and has been used for two seasons . Amaretto is keeping an eye on other drying practices being used by Australian almond growers , this includes equipment with the capacity to use ambient
Easy to use . Mixes with other sprays . Three-year shelf life . Stores at room temperature .
Better biology . Better yield .
The Biostart biological programme improves :
• nut set
• nut and kernel weight
• speed of orchard establishment
• resilience against weather and disease pressure
• beneficial soil biology .
Check out our almond trials at biostart . com . au / almonds
1800 359 559