Pecan Processing

The Kootingal Pecan Company is pleased to offer to Pecan growers an independent processing service in a clean modern facility some 20 minutes drive from Tamworth. Not only can your Pecans be cracked and shelled but they can also be packed all under the same roof.

The processing plant room can be booked for end to end processing, that is from inspection to “bagging for sale” for a minimum of one day to several weeks, subject to availability.

There is no minimum amount of pecans required for Kootingal Pecan Company to crack and shell your Pecans. In fact with sufficient planning and notice, up to 1,000kg (1 tonne) can be processed on the same day for same day collection in 10kg plastic lined boxes.

The process

We process your pecans in 3 steps in our clean modern workspace on our family run Pecan orchard.

Before we receive and process your pecans the machines will have been cleaned including a through wipe down.

1) Pre crack inspection:

All the pecans are deposited into the hopper and then rolled onto the inspection belt to be inspected for foreign material suck as sticks, stones. shucks etc. Kootingal will offer a service to remove cracked, split or oily pecans from the belt. More than a visual check 5% of foreign material will incur a service fee to ensure the Pecans in shell are ready for processing or simply be rejected.

2) Cracking:

The pecans are put into a machine that cracks just the outer shell (ideally) of each nut individually.

Our Savage cracking machine will put out up to 440 per machine/minute, using a Gatling gun type apparatus. Much faster and, of course, much more expensive. But worth it when you’re needing to crack some volume. For growers we can crack 1,000kg ( 1 tonne ) within 3 hours.

The “crack” is adjusted based on its length so having pecans that differ more than about 6mm can yield an unsatisfactory “crack”. The Savage machine at the Kootingal Pecan Company “pre-sizes” each pecan before the crack so it does a substantially better job.

3) Shelling:

The pecans are then run through a new Savage “sheller” which quite simply tumbles the nuts to knock the cracked shell off the meats.

If the pecans are cracked perfectly the shell will fall off the meat with very few “stick tights” and will be mostly “halves”. Both the cracking and shelling process can be hampered and yields (the amount/quality of meats you get back) diminished if you did not keep your pecans separated according to size.
The sheller is typically batch adjusted according to the thickness of the pecan meats to maximize your return.

4) Blowing (sometimes referred to as shelling):

We use a blower to separate the meats from the shell. Air is channeled through chambers where the pecan meat/shell mixture is passed. As the mixture passes through the 1st chamber the heavier halves fall down (due to their weight/density)into a catch bin.

A second pass at a slower speed can then occur where the lighter pecan pieces and larger shells then fall through into another catch bin. The shell and dust are then saved in another barrel as mulch. In this process we normally bag the “1st chute” and the “2nd chute” separately for you.

The amount (percentage wise) in each bag can depend upon the shape your pecans are in and whether we were able to get a good “crack”. If your pecans are dry and hollow, many of them will blow into the 2nd pass.

If you delivered your pecans to us with different sizes mixed together, in order for us to get a decent “crack”, the larger may have been crushed or the smaller ones not cracked enough. In which case you may end up with a larger amount of pieces in the second chute and/or “stick tights” in the 1st chute.
In a perfect world the pecans we return to you should have at least 80% of the shell blown away.

If your return weight will be around 40% -50% of the delivered clean weight. Although, during a “good” year and depending on the variety of the hybrid you could see the higher returns. All this depends on the pecan itself, whether you kept your sizes separated and/or “manage” your trees.

5.) Processing room access.

A processing room with materials to pack, bag, weigh and seal your product is available. This is available at a daily rate and can be discussed in advance with the Kootingal Pecan Co.

To contact us:

Phone: Call Mark on; 0409277720

E-mail: info@kootinglpecancompany.com

Hours of Operation

Tuesday – Saturday   7.30am  to 5:00pm

Sunday & Monday – Closed

Processing plant is closed from November 1st  to March 31st each year.

Optimizing the end product:

1) Cracking & Shelling: 

Because the “crack” is based on the length of the pecan and the “shelling” is based on thickness of the meat, please keep different sizes of pecans separated. For optimum return, try not to mix different sized pecans (+ 6mm” difference) together in the same container and don’t mix papershells with thick shells (or seedlings).

2) We will Save Your Hulls:

We will separate out and save the customers hulls to be given back with their meats.

3) Pre-Cleaning: 

We crack & shell dry “PECANS” only!  Not pecans with the shuck attached or the shucks, leaves, sticks or ROCKS!!! 

If your pecans contain any of these items they may be refused or we may impose the “Pre-Cleaning Fee”. When you come in we try to inspect your pecans to alert you that there may be an issue due to different sizes, old pecans, debris, etc… We do not always see what you actually have until we are setting them up for loading in our machines. We will try to contact you in the event we find an issue to get your approval to continue, which will delay processing.

Please provide ONLY clean, dry PECANS for processing.

Pricing Schedule (Effective 1/5/2023)

Custom Cracking & Blowing

Kootingal Pecan Co. may require a deposit/bond before Pecans can be processed. Payment for all work is only by credit card or bank transfer at the completion of processing.

Minimum Charge                                               $250 / Order

• Pecan Cracking Shelling & Blowing            $4.95/kg
• Pecan Cracking and shelling Only               $4.25/kg
• Pecan Blowing Only                                          $1.00/kg

 10kg Boxes with liners are charged at cost if required.

Debris/Trash Removal (Additional Fee)

• Hand Clean Debris (Includes Blowing debris)        $1.25 /kg.

($50.00 min)

• Rejection Fee                                                    $250.00 / Order

Processing room hire.

• • Day hire                                                         $200.00/day
    • Cleaning charge $150
  • Weekly hire (5 days)                                    $900.00/week
    • Cleaning fee $350

All materials such as Kryvac bags are at cost and agreed in advance of processing room hire.

For Kootingal Pecan Co. to pack third party Pecans in the processing room, please email or call in the first instance.

All prices exclude GST.   

If your pecans have any debris that we deem needs to be

removed the above Removal Fees will be applied and/or your

pecans may be rejected.

If your pecans are rejected you will be responsible for the Rejection Fee. Dropping off pecans for cracking &/or shelling and accepting your claim ticket implies: That you have read and agree to our “Cracking Policy”. We do not understand why you would want to contaminate your pecans meats with anything other than shell and must insist on this policy to help create a better and safer end product for you. As well as limit the damage/wear & tear to our equipment.

FYI

We do not accept pecans in plastic bags, bins or buckets Any large Food bin containers that need to be returned are at your seperate arrangement and cost.

Paper bags (doubled), mesh bags, feed sacks, burlap or even cloth shopping bags are okay. Boxes too are okay, but please fill the box, don’t bring partially full boxes that may crash due to the weigh of other orders on top of them. Feed sacks are okay, but please make sure there are NO remnants of feed or debris inside the bags

If you would like your bags back, please  tell us, so we can make a note on your ticket to “Save Bags”!