were removed. Of the 200 apples (scattered among 

 the 40 bearing trees) that remained unharvested on 

 October 1, none was injured by birds. By October 8, 

 however, 5% had received bird injury. 



Economic Comparison with Typical 

 Commercial Orchards 



How do production costs for the Conway orchard 

 compare with those for a typical commercial apple 

 orchard? Casta] di (1987) analyzed production costs 

 in typical mature commercial Mcintosh apple or- 

 chards in the Hudson Valley of New York State that 

 consisted of trees on M.7 and that received modern, 

 Yirst-stage" [Fruit Notes 52(3):9-12] integrated pest 

 management practices. On a per acre basis, total 

 pre-harvest costs for the Conway orchard (1989) and 

 the typical Hudson Valley orchard (1986) were 

 $2058 and $2236, respectively (Table 2). Pre-har- 

 vest costs of materials were $248/acre for the Con- 

 way orchard ($50/acre for pesticides) compared with 

 $371/acre for the typical Hudson Valley orchard 

 ($279/acre for pesticides). Pre-harvest costs of labor 

 were $1009/acre and $364/acre, respectively. Thus, 

 the Conway orchard received a lower input of pur- 



chased materials (particularly pesticides) but a 

 higher input of labor than a typical commercial 

 Mcintosh apple orchard in the Hudson Valley. 



In 1989, mature trees in the Conway orchard 

 yielded on average about 3 bushels U.S Fancy fruit 

 per tree, valued at $60 when sold to supermarkets 

 that specialize in low-input produce. The typical 

 Hudson Valley commercial Mcintosh orchard 

 yielded about 2. 5 bushels ofU.S. Fancy fruit per tree, 

 valued at $43 when sold to supermarkets that do not 

 specialize in low-input produce. At about 177 trees/ 

 acre, which reflects tree density in both the Conway 

 and typical Hudson Valley orchard, this would rep- 

 resent a gross return of $10,800 and $7,740, respec- 

 tively. If harvest, storage, and marketing costs were 

 considered equal for both types of orchard, and if 

 there were no monetary return on fruit that did not 

 qualify as U.S. Fancy, then return on investment 

 would be $3,238/acre greater for the Conway or- 

 chard [(10,800 - 2,058) - (7,740 - 2,236)]. 



Conclusions 



Findings from 1984-89 in my small commercial 

 apple orchard in Conway, MA indicate that the 



Fruit Notes, Fall, 1990 



13 



