SALEM — Freshly harvested hazelnuts arrived by the truckload at Chapin Dehydrating LLC, where they are washed and dried for packaging.

Bruce Chapin, who runs the receiving station north of Salem, is so far pleased with what he sees. He anticipates the crop will be roughly on par with last year’s record haul of 61,000 tons, despite challenging conditions that have kept Willamette Valley growers on their toes.

“We had a very dry summer,” Chapin said. “As a result, we’re seeing smaller nuts coming in here.”

In addition to the heat and drought, a major ice storm in February severely damaged some orchards, with branches or, in some cases, whole trees breaking under pressure.

A shortage of workers at the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service means the industry did not receive its annual crop forecast, but hazelnut growers say they are seeing decent yields and good quality after weathering a difficult year.

“I think we were basically flush or maybe even up a bit,” said Tim Aman, of Aman Bros. LLC, which farms 180 acres of hazelnuts near Mt. Angel, Ore.

Aman said the February ice storm devastated their older orchards, snapping branches off the upper two-thirds of the trees. Instead of harvesting 3,000 to 5,000 pounds per acre, yields were 1,000 pounds per acre.

“It was like a bomb went off,” he said. “When you get an inch of ice that builds up on both sides of the branch, there’s nothing that can withstand that.”

Younger orchards, however, were not nearly as damaged. Varieties such as Jefferson and McDonald continue to increase production as they come into full maturity, making up for losses elsewhere on the farm, Aman said.

Oregon produces nearly all U.S. hazelnuts, with acreage more than doubling over the last decade to approximately 80,000 acres.

Aman said their orchards were less affected by drought, since the trees are irrigated.

For dryland growers like Jay Price, the effects of drought were more pronounced.

Price, who farms about 20 acres in Oregon’s Yamhill County, said the lack of rain means nut size is down from last year. He is also concerned the “heat dome” in June that brought temperatures as high as 117 degrees may stunt the growth of some younger orchards.

“It would have been a tough year to have a new planting, I think, if you didn’t have irrigation,” Price said.

Ryan Flaherty, grower relations manager for Hazelnut Growers of Oregon, a co-op with more than 200 member farmers, said harvest was 75-80% finished as of Oct. 20. Overall, he said, crop quality has been good with few cases of mold, rancidity or insect damage.

While the heat dome did cause leaves to wilt and burn on hazelnut trees, it did not necessarily affect this year’s crop, Flaherty said. As for 2022, that remains to be seen.

“It just seems like those trees shut down during that intense heat,” he said, noting that trees were still growing new fruiting wood to set next year’s crop.

At Chapin Dehydrating, hazelnuts were carried by forklift in 1,200-pound wooden totes to the mechanical wash line, which removes rocks and debris collected from the field. They are then dropped into one of six dryers that heat up to 105 degrees.

“For the most part, the product has come in in respectable shape,” Chapin said. “It’s not as big as I was hoping, but it should be similar to last year’s yield.”