Boyne River Pecans focused on sustainability on their Mundubbera farm

The couple along with children, Drew and Caitlyn Paton and Michelle’s father Lindsay Chicken maintain 10,000 trees on their property outside of Mundubbera.

Ms Chicken’s parents purchased property neighbouring the orchard in 2005 before later buying the paddocks with 5000 pecan trees too.

They originally intended on using the extra land for grazing purposes but Michelle and Boyd saw an opportunity to diversify the family operation and returned home to become horticulturist. 

The first step in the pair’s management system was to avoid traditional methods of heavy watering and spraying and optimise their production with ground cover and a holistic approach.

Weed sprays have been swapped for sheep which are used to graze around the trees while the sticks from hedging are chipped and combined with manure from a piggery across the road to create compost that goes back into the paddocks. 

Maintaining water moisture in the ground is a key part of their operation and under their new management soil at the base of the trees has improved from the hard dry consistency it was and is proven in their growing yields. 

After planting another 5000 trees in 2015, the pair now maintain 10,000 trees of six different varieties including two new types that are popular with Chinese consumers. 

Their next expansion project comes in the form of farm gate business and taking full responsibility of their product to ensure it gets to consumers in the same way it leaves the farm. 

A trial selling Boyne River Pecans through Facebook last year was so successful that the family plan on building on the idea and selling a “few tonnes” of their processed and whole pecan products this year.

Ms Chicken said pecans for a food that needed to be eaten seasonally and consumer education was paramount.

“If people learnt to eat seasonally they would appreciate the taste and producers would see the benefit of the premiums that are involved with being able to sell a product at a high price for three months of the year rather than having to give it away,” she said.

“When you have got that farm gate experience you have got full control over the supply change that you know that (the pecans) they are putting in their month is the quality it was when it left the farm.”

The family also grow hay and turnoff 350 steers each year but are also facing the possibility of an uncertain future after their water supplies from the Boyne River was cut off on February 24. 

They were also without water for three periods of ten days during the pecan nut’s set and fill stage and fear their quality and yields of up to 70 tonne could be affected. 

“If it trends the way it is trending it will be 18 months (before the water is back),” Mr Paton said.

“We have secured enough water to get us through for this season but next season who knows,” Ms Chicken added.

“The thing is it’s not a corp of lucerne, it’s a lifelong investment.

“You can’t replant those trees. Some of these trees are 15 to 20 years old so it’s a long wait if you lose them because of lack of water.”