Farmers’ weather worries continue

Temperatures, rain hurting harvesting

By ELON GLUCKLICH

H&N Staff Reporter

November 9, 2010

     One day, the weather is 70 degrees and sunny. The next three days, it rains. Then, it’s back to 70 and sunny.

   Varying weather systems in the Klamath Basin this fall are wreaking havoc on many producers’ harvesting seasons.

   Places like Babbitt Hay Sales in Klamath Falls are facing a 20 percent drop in production, says Lyle Bergstrom, the company’s Klamath Basin representative.

   “We’ve had less hay to sell for the whole year,” he said.

   Bergstrom buys hay from local growers.     

   He said most growers in the Klamath Basin have been affected by the changing weather systems, to the point that some simply had to forego growing on parts of their land.

   Bergstrom blamed frost that coated the ground in late May, and returned this fall.

   “There was frost before the first cutting in late May,” he said. “And there was a lower cutting rate in early September because of frost. That hurt.”

   ‘Makes you ... nervous’

   Wong Potatoes south of Klamath Falls managed to avoid crop losses for the most part this year. But owner Dan Chin said the inclement weather forced him to put off harvesting around 60 acres of land.

   “We just got back in the fields,” Chin said. “We actually didn’t harvest anything for about two weeks.”  

   Most of the company’s acreage has already been harvested. But Chin said this time of year always brings uncertainty about the weather. And with that uncertainty, comes the need to devise contingency plans in case weather doesn’t cooperate during this important time in the season.

   The Klamath Falls area was hit with about 1-1/2 inches of rain three weeks ago. Weather forecasts for this week call for more rain and snow.

   Chin said he felt fortunate to be finishing up this year’s harvest before steady rain comes in. Other potato growers, he said, haven’t been as lucky.

   “You don’t know what the weather is going to do in the future,” Chin said. “We have a lot of investment, a lot of equity out there in the fields. It makes you a little nervous.”