Cool weather delays crops

KENNEWICK – The growth of crops across Washington state is being slowed by cool, wet spring weather, which could mean smaller apples, fewer cherries and a late selling season for various food items.

Hops are slow in moving up the vine, the potato crop is behind schedule, and hay farmers are rushing to turn and bale cut alfalfa that’s been lying in the fields.

Washington’s sweet cherry production is estimated to be down 41 percent, according to information this week from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agriculture Statistics Service. Mid-April frost and poor pollination are to blame.

Joe Shelton, grower manager for Broetje Orchards near Prescott in southeast Washington, said Broetje won’t pick any cherries this year.

“If it stays cool, we may have to thin a little more aggressively,” he said.

Bart Whitby, a Basin City hay farmer, aggressively hit the fields to turn some cut hay.

“We’re about two weeks later than normal,” said Whitby, who has 800 acres of hay still standing in the field that should have been mowed by now. It won’t have as much nutritional value, but it may escape without the water damage suffered by the hay that was cut earlier.

“Some is a little damaged, some is severe,” he said.

Area potato growers also are hoping the sun sends down more warmth soon. The area’s large growers and processors, ConAgra Lamb Weston and J.R. Simplot, plan on bringing new crops into the potato sheds by late June.

David Smith, director of agriculture services for ConAgra Lamb Weston in Kennewick, said the early crop is “seven to 10 days behind normal growth,” but looks really good.

“We’re scheduled to start harvesting about July 14, about a week later than normal,” Smith said.

West of the Cascades, Orting farmer Allen Scholz is worried.

“I don’t know an optimistic farmer anywhere,” he said. “We are all bummed out by the weather..”

Scholz estimates the late-growing season might cost him 30 percent of his crops – except for rhubarb, which is thriving.

Whether crops will rebound depends on the weather. Growers in California are suffering in drought conditions, while heavy rain and flash flooding are putting the Midwest corn crop at risk.

All of which means higher prices in the grocery store.

“The corn markets are dramatically responding to the poor growing conditions in the Midwest, hitting record highs,” said J. Shannon Neibergs, an agricultural economist and associate professor at the Washington State University School of Economic Sciences.