One of my friends with a pecan orchard never sprays but just mows things as short as he can before harvest. He uses a zero turn mower in the row and a flail in the alleys that would shred small branches. Large branches are set in the tree row and the harvest equipment blows the nuts out of the tree row. I think the large branches eventually do get hauled out. But some orchards around windrow the branches after pruning in winter and hire a self propelled high horsepower grinder to grind them into chips in place…

Just some thoughts I’ve had on the irrigation. It seems like the conventional PVC riser system doesn’t go well with cattle. I have heard of a nearby pecan orchard who has steel sprinkler risers and uses them for fence posts for his grazing system but I haven’t seen it. It makes a convenient system for electric fencing as you just attach insulators and string wire anywhere on the sprinkler grid. I’m not sure if that is worth the cost, it sounded like maybe some of what he is doing is more based on experimentation than needing to make immediate profit. Are you acquainted with K-line irrigation systems? I have been told they have protected sprinklers to work with grazing animals and the lines can be pulled around to different parts of the field. My neighbor has used them some for pasture and also when they used to have subsurface drip tape to get newly planted crops to germinate. Subsurface drip might work but it has a lot of challenges and in my opinion and observation it doesn’t fit very well with a living soil ecosystem. In our semiarid climate it is difficult to keep the top shallow O and A Horizons hydrated and functioning with subsurface drip. It also pushes salts from irrigation water to the surface instead of down like overhead irrigation does. How much would irrigation help in your climate? It sounds like it’s not required to grow a crop or is it?