Chuck Bellamy, a citrus grower in Inverness, Florida, doubled his yield to 2,800 boxes per acre while cutting costs from $1,500 to $500 by switching to regenerative soil practices. He cut herbicide use by 80%, added cover crops between rows, and reduced nitrogen inputs. His Hamlin trees haven't needed HLB injections.
Questions this video answers
Previously about $1,500 per acre; in 2023 he spent $500 per acre.
Hamlin variety; noted as particularly sensitive to HLB (huanglongbing).
Chapters
Can you imagine cutting your budget per acre in half and doubling your yield at the same time? Well, it really happened. Citrus grower Chuck Bellamy in Inverness, Florida, started using regenerative practices, and over the course of four years, he doubled his yield and cut his per acre budget in half. It was just a few key changes. Basically, he reduced herbicide, he started cover cropping the aisles, and he reduced his nitrogen. His goal has been to focus on soil health, and it has shown in his tree performance. And mind you, these are hamlins, which are particularly sensitive to hlb and they have never had an OTC injection. Last year I sat down with Chuck to ask him to explain his journey, his practices, what's changed and what his results were.
The main thing, I have cut back on my money per acre. Used to put 150012 to 1500 dollars per acre out here in the Grove. In 2023, I only spent $500 to the acre. This year, I had to up some spent $600 to the acre. 2020 was 1500 boxes, 2021 was 1500 boxes, 2022 was 2000 boxes. And last year 2023 was 2,800 boxes and spending $500 to the acre. So you doubled your yield and halved your budget. Exactly. Wow. It takes time. It's not an overnight thing. I don't use OTC injections, but this seemed to work for me.
What Chuck has done is he started using a technique called the skinny strip, where all he does is open one or two nozzles at the end of his boom that are right along the center where those micro jets are, just to keep this line clean so that when his water is running, the micro jet sprays the water over the whole area of the bed that it's supposed to. He has reduced that herbicide amount by quite a bit, probably 80%. Reducing that herbicide allows the nutrients to be more available because herbicide can tie up nutrients. And then he's also doing cover cropping in the center. So he's seen really great results with COVID cropping, reduced herbicide, and now he's using our rebound manganese and rebound iron, and the crop looks awesome this year.
