Early spring farm report

[MadHound]

Hey there. Being a small scale farmer myself (fruit orchard, berries), and living in a state traditionally dominated by agriculture, I keep an eye on the weather, for weather is a major factor in crop production.

This year, the weather situation is not good. Woke up this morning to a couple inches of snow on the ground. The cold, and early spring snow by themselves aren't worrisome. But the problem is that this is simply more moisture falling on ground that is already saturated. Week after week, from last fall, throughout the winter and now into the spring, we have received lots of precipitation.

This is not good for growing crops. At this point, many people around here would be tilling the soil and planting early spring crops, lettuce, broccoli. That isn't happening.

But what is really worrisome is the state of the fields used to grow grains and beans. I toured a portion of the Missouri river bottom late last week, and every field had standing water. My own ground, on the SE edge of the Great Plain is also far too wet, standing water and sponge like soil.

Prospects of things drying up in time for regular spring planting are dim. As front after front passes over, the moisture is drawn up into the atmosphere, where it condenses and turns into more rain.

Really, this is starting to look more and more like 1993, the year of the Flood. An overly wet winter, followed by never ending spring and summer rains.

If this continues, food prices are going to rise even more. With a drenched field, farmers can't get in to harvest winter wheat. Nor can they get into the field to plant this year's crops. Livestock suffers and dies from fungal diseases, difficult birthing and other factors associated with too much water.

Just thought I would let you know what is going on out here in the bread basket so you can plan accordingly.

[realFedUp]

1. and one wonders about radiation in fruit harvests.

Do farmers test for that before selling crops?
Thanks for the farm report and hope you do better than it looks now.

[EFerrari]

2. There's more humidity here in general.

We used to have to run a humidifier all day from Spring through Fall or our skin and hair would dry out. The coastal winds every afternoon comes up through the hills, too.

Not any more. It feels more like NOLA than the San Jose I grew up in.

[Le Taz Hot]

3. Can I add one from the San Joaquin Valley?

Luckily we don't have the snow situation that you guys in the Midwest (I'm assuming) have and, though we've had incredible rainfall this year it's been sporadic enough so it has had time to sink in (present conditions excluded -- getting ready for the NEXT storm). Having said that we're still experiencing very winter-like conditions which will, a) delay planting and b) delay some winter crop harvests -- especially citrus.

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

4. Back in Feb. we had warm weather and the plums bloomed, so did some

apricots, pears and almonds. Then heavy frosts, hail and this month 20 inches of rain so far. Was another big storm last night, but just heavy overcast now. Apple trees are starting to bloom, but this is not weather for the bees.