Ext User(Bonzo)
21-05-2007, 02:53 PM
Record cold takes a toll on crops
By Mike Dirks, Times-News, via AP
Richard Staton, with Staton Farms, looks over
damage to his apple crop after several days of below freezing
temperatures in Henderson County, N.C., Monday, April 9, 2007. Freezing
weather across the Southeast is threatening crops. Many apple growers
feel that their entire crop has been lost.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The last time Alan Gibson's orchard had
early
season weather damage, he found a way around it. Hail stones had left
more than a dozen dings on every apple, so he dipped their "kind of
ugly" skins in chocolate and sold plenty.
"This time, we're not going to have anything to cover with
chocolate," he said Monday.
After three days of freezing temperatures and at least one more
expected before a warmup, Gibson is predicting a total loss on the 3,000
trees in his small, pick-your-own orchard in Harpers Ferry.
The trees at Ridgefield Farm - with varieties including Nittany,
Honey Crisp and Pink Lady - are wired on trellises to help them
withstand strong storms. But there was little Gibson could do to protect
the tender buds from prolonged temperatures in the 20s.
"We did a preliminary check this morning, and it looks like we've
confirmed about a 50% kill. But that's just counting what happened a
couple of days ago," he said. "Tonight is supposed to be below freezing,
too. ... At this stage, it looks like pretty much a total loss."
Gibson's orchard is so small he can't get crop insurance, and he
hasn't begun to estimate his financial loss. But he'll try to make up
what he can this fall, when thousands of schoolchildren come to pick
pumpkins.
The state Department of Agriculture doesn't survey cold damage,
and Barry Crutchfield said it's probably too soon to quantify the damage
statewide.
"Generally, if you have temperatures below 28 degrees, that's when
you have damage," he said.
Temperatures have been in the low 20s across the Eastern Panhandle
since Friday, and farmers there are already calling about lost crops,
said Henry Hogmire, West Virginia University extension specialist for
the Kearneysville Tree Fruit Research and Education Center.
"Having freezing temperatures in April is not that rare," he said.
"What makes it more severe this year is that the fruit bud development
is a week ahead of what we would consider normal. ... The buds were more
advanced and more susceptible to the freezing."
The research farm has 60 acres of fruit trees, mainly peaches and
apples, but Hogmire said the extent of the damage won't be known until
the weather improves and the buds begin to thaw.
Typically, an orchard operator can produce a commercial crop even
if only 10% of the buds survive, Hogmire said.
"So in an ideal situation, you could lose 80 to 90% of buds and
still have a crop," he said.
But many farmers are already at that margin, with a freeze warning
still in effect through Tuesday morning and a whole growing season of
other potential problems ahead.
Eric Johnson, owner of the Morgan Orchard in Sinks Grove, Monroe
County, will learn the extent of his losses after the blossoms on his
23,000 apple and peach trees thaw. But after three nights at 19 degrees,
he knows what to expect.
"I'm pretty sure we had a bad thing happen," he said. "From a
general overview, it did. All the leaves we had out are all turned
brown."
His 100-acre farm is insured, but Johnson won't be able to pick
the 16,000 bushels of apples he gathered last season, so he'll likely
have to plant more vegetables and pumpkins.
He may not even spend the money he usually does to spray the trees
for insects and disease.
In Romney, orchard operator Gary Shanholz has already wasted money
pruning and fertilizing his 30,000 apple and peach trees.
"It looks like the peaches are just a complete wipeout," he said.
They were in full bloom early last week, nearly 10 days ahead of
schedule. Shanholz cut some budding branches and brought them inside
over the weekend, only to see the buds wilt.
"I don't have to wait for them to warm up to see," he said.
"Sometimes, they'll still grow. This time, I don't think they're going
to."
Shanholz lost a peach crop to the cold in 1995, but apples have
usually fared better in 40 years of farming.
"If it's as bad as I think it's been," he said, "it's going to be
the worst we've ever had in apples."
"Today was the fifth morning below zero," Shanholz said. "When
there's a frost, it's usually just for a few hours, and you can run wind
machines and warm it up. But this was just a downright freeze, and it
lasted for up to 12 hours at a time for five days.
"It's just impossible."
Crops in Tennessee are also at risk due to the recent cold snap.
Don and Katie Henry celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on
their Robertson County farm Saturday morning while record low
temperatures outside were destroying all their crops.
Twenty acres of peaches, nine acres of blackberries and seven
acres of strawberries at K-D Orchard were wiped out - their worst loss
in 25 years of business in Robertson County north of Nashville.
"For fruit, there's a big difference between when temperatures are
25 or 26 degrees and when they reach 19 or 20," Don Henry said Monday.
"Around here it was 19 or 20."
Temperatures in the 20s set record lows in Chattanooga, Memphis,
Knoxville and Nashville this weekend.
On Monday, state officials had not yet assessed how much harm the
freeze had done to crops, but several farmers surveyed said the damage
is bad.
A reporter calling a Sumner County farm on Monday and asking
whether she had reached Bradley's Kountry Acres received the response,
"What's left of it."
Asking if the person on the phone was Mike Bradley got the answer,
"What's left of him." Bradley said he had been up since Thursday trying
to protect his strawberry crop from the freeze.
"We're hoping we were able to save the majority (of the
strawberries)," he said, "but we're pretty sure the peach crop and
blackberry crop are going to be a total loss."
Bradley's strawberries were still covered in anticipation of cold
temperatures again Monday night, but he had made spot checks of a few
plants and thought they would survive.
The severe cold snap, known in folklore as a "dogwood winter,"
followed an unusually warm March that caused plants to leaf out and
bloom early.
"The unusually warm weather just pushed everything out ahead of
schedule," Bradley said.
The blackberries were blooming and the peaches were already the
size of peas when the cold weather hit.
"You kind of expect a few nights around 30 degrees this time of
year, but not down in the 20-22 range," he said.
Tennessee Department of Agriculture spokesman Tom Womack said many
farmers had planted corn about two weeks early because of the warm March
weather. They also planted more corn than normal, anticipating increased
demand for ethanol production.
One farmer in West Tennessee had reported on Monday that his
2-inch and 3-inch tall plants were laid over and had turned dark
although they were still green near the ground at the stem.
"Farmers are waiting to see if it will come back or they'll have
to replant," he said. "It's still early, so there's time to replant, but
there's a concern there may be a shortage of seed."
Another crop that could be damaged is winter wheat. Womack said he
had heard that at least one Coffee County farmer whose winter wheat crop
had been damaged because the grain had already begun to form when the
cold hit.
"It will be several days before we know the full extent of the
damage to the various crops," he said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Regards
Bonzo
"...and I think future generations are not going to blame us for
anything except for being silly, for letting a few tenths of a degree
panic us"
Dr. Richard Lindzen, Professor of Meteorology MIT and Member of the
National Academy of Sciences
"What most commentators-and many scientists-seem to miss is that the
only thing we can say with certainly about climate is that it changes"
Dr. Richard Lindzen, Professor of Meteorology MIT and Member of the
National Academy of Sciences
[most of the current alarm over climate change is based on] "inherently
untrustworthy climate models, similar to those that cannot accurately
forecast the weather a week from now." Dr. Richard Lindzen, Professor of
Meteorology MIT and Member of the National Academy of Sciences
By Mike Dirks, Times-News, via AP
Richard Staton, with Staton Farms, looks over
damage to his apple crop after several days of below freezing
temperatures in Henderson County, N.C., Monday, April 9, 2007. Freezing
weather across the Southeast is threatening crops. Many apple growers
feel that their entire crop has been lost.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - The last time Alan Gibson's orchard had
early
season weather damage, he found a way around it. Hail stones had left
more than a dozen dings on every apple, so he dipped their "kind of
ugly" skins in chocolate and sold plenty.
"This time, we're not going to have anything to cover with
chocolate," he said Monday.
After three days of freezing temperatures and at least one more
expected before a warmup, Gibson is predicting a total loss on the 3,000
trees in his small, pick-your-own orchard in Harpers Ferry.
The trees at Ridgefield Farm - with varieties including Nittany,
Honey Crisp and Pink Lady - are wired on trellises to help them
withstand strong storms. But there was little Gibson could do to protect
the tender buds from prolonged temperatures in the 20s.
"We did a preliminary check this morning, and it looks like we've
confirmed about a 50% kill. But that's just counting what happened a
couple of days ago," he said. "Tonight is supposed to be below freezing,
too. ... At this stage, it looks like pretty much a total loss."
Gibson's orchard is so small he can't get crop insurance, and he
hasn't begun to estimate his financial loss. But he'll try to make up
what he can this fall, when thousands of schoolchildren come to pick
pumpkins.
The state Department of Agriculture doesn't survey cold damage,
and Barry Crutchfield said it's probably too soon to quantify the damage
statewide.
"Generally, if you have temperatures below 28 degrees, that's when
you have damage," he said.
Temperatures have been in the low 20s across the Eastern Panhandle
since Friday, and farmers there are already calling about lost crops,
said Henry Hogmire, West Virginia University extension specialist for
the Kearneysville Tree Fruit Research and Education Center.
"Having freezing temperatures in April is not that rare," he said.
"What makes it more severe this year is that the fruit bud development
is a week ahead of what we would consider normal. ... The buds were more
advanced and more susceptible to the freezing."
The research farm has 60 acres of fruit trees, mainly peaches and
apples, but Hogmire said the extent of the damage won't be known until
the weather improves and the buds begin to thaw.
Typically, an orchard operator can produce a commercial crop even
if only 10% of the buds survive, Hogmire said.
"So in an ideal situation, you could lose 80 to 90% of buds and
still have a crop," he said.
But many farmers are already at that margin, with a freeze warning
still in effect through Tuesday morning and a whole growing season of
other potential problems ahead.
Eric Johnson, owner of the Morgan Orchard in Sinks Grove, Monroe
County, will learn the extent of his losses after the blossoms on his
23,000 apple and peach trees thaw. But after three nights at 19 degrees,
he knows what to expect.
"I'm pretty sure we had a bad thing happen," he said. "From a
general overview, it did. All the leaves we had out are all turned
brown."
His 100-acre farm is insured, but Johnson won't be able to pick
the 16,000 bushels of apples he gathered last season, so he'll likely
have to plant more vegetables and pumpkins.
He may not even spend the money he usually does to spray the trees
for insects and disease.
In Romney, orchard operator Gary Shanholz has already wasted money
pruning and fertilizing his 30,000 apple and peach trees.
"It looks like the peaches are just a complete wipeout," he said.
They were in full bloom early last week, nearly 10 days ahead of
schedule. Shanholz cut some budding branches and brought them inside
over the weekend, only to see the buds wilt.
"I don't have to wait for them to warm up to see," he said.
"Sometimes, they'll still grow. This time, I don't think they're going
to."
Shanholz lost a peach crop to the cold in 1995, but apples have
usually fared better in 40 years of farming.
"If it's as bad as I think it's been," he said, "it's going to be
the worst we've ever had in apples."
"Today was the fifth morning below zero," Shanholz said. "When
there's a frost, it's usually just for a few hours, and you can run wind
machines and warm it up. But this was just a downright freeze, and it
lasted for up to 12 hours at a time for five days.
"It's just impossible."
Crops in Tennessee are also at risk due to the recent cold snap.
Don and Katie Henry celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on
their Robertson County farm Saturday morning while record low
temperatures outside were destroying all their crops.
Twenty acres of peaches, nine acres of blackberries and seven
acres of strawberries at K-D Orchard were wiped out - their worst loss
in 25 years of business in Robertson County north of Nashville.
"For fruit, there's a big difference between when temperatures are
25 or 26 degrees and when they reach 19 or 20," Don Henry said Monday.
"Around here it was 19 or 20."
Temperatures in the 20s set record lows in Chattanooga, Memphis,
Knoxville and Nashville this weekend.
On Monday, state officials had not yet assessed how much harm the
freeze had done to crops, but several farmers surveyed said the damage
is bad.
A reporter calling a Sumner County farm on Monday and asking
whether she had reached Bradley's Kountry Acres received the response,
"What's left of it."
Asking if the person on the phone was Mike Bradley got the answer,
"What's left of him." Bradley said he had been up since Thursday trying
to protect his strawberry crop from the freeze.
"We're hoping we were able to save the majority (of the
strawberries)," he said, "but we're pretty sure the peach crop and
blackberry crop are going to be a total loss."
Bradley's strawberries were still covered in anticipation of cold
temperatures again Monday night, but he had made spot checks of a few
plants and thought they would survive.
The severe cold snap, known in folklore as a "dogwood winter,"
followed an unusually warm March that caused plants to leaf out and
bloom early.
"The unusually warm weather just pushed everything out ahead of
schedule," Bradley said.
The blackberries were blooming and the peaches were already the
size of peas when the cold weather hit.
"You kind of expect a few nights around 30 degrees this time of
year, but not down in the 20-22 range," he said.
Tennessee Department of Agriculture spokesman Tom Womack said many
farmers had planted corn about two weeks early because of the warm March
weather. They also planted more corn than normal, anticipating increased
demand for ethanol production.
One farmer in West Tennessee had reported on Monday that his
2-inch and 3-inch tall plants were laid over and had turned dark
although they were still green near the ground at the stem.
"Farmers are waiting to see if it will come back or they'll have
to replant," he said. "It's still early, so there's time to replant, but
there's a concern there may be a shortage of seed."
Another crop that could be damaged is winter wheat. Womack said he
had heard that at least one Coffee County farmer whose winter wheat crop
had been damaged because the grain had already begun to form when the
cold hit.
"It will be several days before we know the full extent of the
damage to the various crops," he said.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Regards
Bonzo
"...and I think future generations are not going to blame us for
anything except for being silly, for letting a few tenths of a degree
panic us"
Dr. Richard Lindzen, Professor of Meteorology MIT and Member of the
National Academy of Sciences
"What most commentators-and many scientists-seem to miss is that the
only thing we can say with certainly about climate is that it changes"
Dr. Richard Lindzen, Professor of Meteorology MIT and Member of the
National Academy of Sciences
[most of the current alarm over climate change is based on] "inherently
untrustworthy climate models, similar to those that cannot accurately
forecast the weather a week from now." Dr. Richard Lindzen, Professor of
Meteorology MIT and Member of the National Academy of Sciences