Austin County Pecan Show in Bellville: Choose Your Best Pecans

"Shriveled, malformed kernels can hide inside normal-looking shells," Monte Nesbitt, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension pecan specialist, told AgriLife Today while talking about the 2026 Texas crop in September. If you have a pecan tree in your yard or pasture around Bellville, that one sentence changes how you should get ready for this year's Austin County Pecan Show.

The show is free. Entries go to the AgriLife Extension office on East Wendt Street starting Friday, October 30. In most years you'd pick up the nicest-looking nuts under the tree, fill the bag, and drop it off. This year, how a nut looks on the outside tells you less than usual, and the way the show is judged means a few bad kernels can hurt you more than you'd guess.

The Bag Gets Opened Ten Nuts at a Time

Each entry is 50 pecans of one variety. They go in a brown paper bag the office gives you, along with a completed entry card. The Horticulture Committee of Austin County doesn't judge all 50. It pulls 10 at random and scores them on kernel weight percent, color, fill, and blemishes.

That random draw is what drives everything else. You can't place your best ten on top, because the committee picks the sample, not you. If a handful of your 50 have thin or dark kernels, any of them could end up among the ten. Kernel weight percent is a ratio of kernel to whole nut. A big, handsome shell with a half-filled kernel inside scores worse than a smaller nut that's packed full.

Last December's judging worked the same way. Dr. Philip Shackelford scored the 2025 entries on weight before and after shelling, kernel color, absence of insect damage, and ease of shelling. Every one of those happens after the shell comes off. None of it shows from the outside.

What a Dry August Does Inside a Normal-Looking Shell

Here's why 2026 is harder to call by eye. AgriLife reports that North, East, and Central Texas had an unusually wet spring. Many orchards needed little irrigation into July, but the moisture also brought pecan scab, along with more downy spot and powdery mildew. Then the weather turned. A hot, very dry stretch arrived just as trees entered kernel fill, the August-to-September stage when the part you eat develops and the tree needs the most water.

"August is the separating point where pecans can go well, or they go badly."

That's Nesbitt again. He added that growers with reliable irrigation have a good chance of finishing the crop, and those without water face more uncertainty. Most backyard and pasture trees around Bellville fall in the second group. A tree by a watered lawn or a stock tank may have had a very different August than one on the far side of an unwatered pasture, even on the same property.

Pecan nut casebearer pressure was also above normal this season. Its larvae burrow into the nut and feed on the kernel. That's the insect damage judges look for.

The statewide numbers are good overall. Nesbitt estimates the Texas crop at about 39 million pounds, up from 32 million last year, and the Tri-State Pecan Growers Association puts it near 42 million. Texas growers didn't issue an official forecast at their July conference, so those are two separate estimates, not one settled figure. Either way, a bigger crop doesn't mean better kernels, and it doesn't tell you anything about the tree in your yard. Nesbitt said he's confident there will be good pecans somewhere in Texas this year, but he doesn't know where yet.

Why Native and Backyard Trees Belong in the Bag

The show is open to any Austin County resident with a pecan tree, whether it grows in a yard, a pasture, or an orchard. There's no entry fee and no age limit. You can enter as many varieties as you want. Residents of a surrounding county that doesn't have its own pecan show can enter too.

The 2025 results show how wide the field is. Ronnie Kuciemba won Commercial Champion with Kiowa, and Doug Schultz took reserve with Pawnee. Pete Berckenhoff won the Classic & New Varieties championship with Fayette. Luedeker Farms won Native Champion, and George & Betty Thiel were Native Reserve Champion. There were also ribbons for Variety Seedling, and a whole category for the lightest pecan. Charlotte Rinn won that one with nuts that took 216 to make a pound, and Sherry Burnham was second at 181.

So a small native from an old fence-line tree has its own place in this show. Size isn't what matters. Fill is. In 2024, a Luedeker Farm native entry stood out at the State Show at 71 nuts per pound with a 57% kernel. That's what a well-filled native looks like on paper, and it's the reason to look inside your nuts before you count out 50.

A Kitchen-Table Check Before You Fill the Bag

AgriLife's guidance on harvesting and handling pecans lines up closely with what the judges score. Here's a simple order of operations that follows it:

1. Gather more than 50 from the same tree and variety. Each entry has to be a single variety, so keep trees separate if you aren't sure what each one is.
2. Let them dry. At harvest, kernels can hold 15 to 20% moisture or more. AgriLife says to dry them with air and sunshine toward about 6%.
3. Crack a sample. A kernel that bends or feels rubbery instead of snapping isn't dry enough yet.
4. Look at the color. AgriLife says to look for bright, light-golden kernels. Brown can point to rancidity, poor storage, or stress on the tree.
5. Look at the fill. Full, plump kernels that match each other in size and color are the goal. If several cracked nuts come out shriveled or show insect damage, try a different tree before you commit 50 nuts that the committee will sample at random.
6. Store what you're keeping cool and dry. AgriLife recommends cool, dry storage for in-shell nuts.

The cracked nuts are your test sample, not part of the entry. The 50 you hand in should come from the same batch that passed.

Getting It to Wendt Street by November 23

Timing is the other reason to start now. AgriLife says Texas pecans aren't harvested before October at the earliest. Nuts also need time to dry before they're ready for a bag. If your tree drops late in the fall, the drop, the drying, and the test cracks all have to fit before the deadline.

Bags are available at the office, so you don't need to bring your own. The results will be posted at the Extension office, on the office's Facebook page, and on its website. If you have questions about a variety or an entry card, call Extension agent Stacie Villarreal at 979-865-2072.

Where a Bellville Bag Can End Up

The county show is the first of three rounds. The Texas Pecan Growers Association explains that county samples are judged first. Winners then move on to one of three regional contests, East, Central, or West, and regional winners compete for state awards. Austin County feeds the East Regional. Last year 55 entries came through the county show, and 27 went on to the East Regional in February. That's about half the bags handed in.

Austin County has done well beyond the regional round. Seven of its entries reached the 2024 State Show by way of the East Regional. That state show had 193 entries across 47 varieties. Local category winners included Industry Methodist Church with Mahan, Success, and Schley, and Lois Steele with Prilop. A church and a homeowner are on that list next to a farm, which matches how open the county show is.

The next state round is less certain than usual. TPGA held its 2026 conference July 12 to 15 in San Marcos and says a Field Day will replace the traditional conference in 2027. TPGA hasn't announced when the next State Pecan Show will be held. The county and regional rounds are where this year's Bellville entries will be decided.

On a lot of properties I walk with clients around Bellville, pecan trees along a fence line or by the old house site come up in the conversation. Plenty of owners don't know what variety they have or how good the nuts are. If you're thinking about land with mature pecans, or about what the trees on your own acreage add to it, Lauren M. Cox is glad to walk it with you and talk it through. And if you have a bag of 50 headed to Wendt Street this fall, good luck at the show.