Farmers across Snohomish County are counting on a
change in the weather next week.
It’s about time, many say.
Gov.
Chris Gregoire asked the federal government to designate Snohomish and
28 other counties in Washington as agricultural production disaster
areas.
She made the request Thursday, after June left farmers on
both sides of the state hit hard with winds, chilly temperatures and
lots of rain during planting time and the early weeks of crop
germination. Some lost portions of their crops and others had to start
over and replant.
“Now it looks like we might turn this thing
around,” said National Weather Service spokesman Reid Wolcott in
Seattle. “The forecast for the next couple weeks shows above average
temperatures and below average precipitation.”
At the Biringer
berry farm near Arlington, Dianna Biringer said her husband, Mike,
probably won’t apply for any disaster aid that might become available.
“But
we need people to come out now and pick strawberries or we will have a
disaster,” Biringer said. “The regulars come out rain or shine, but most
people don’t want to pick berries until the sun is out.”
As far
as the governor’s request goes, the word “disaster” accurately sums up
the recent spring, said Andrew Corbin, a faculty member at the Snohomish
County Washington State University Extension.
Instead of seeing
cornstalks knee-high by the Fourth of July, some farmers are just now
getting their corn in the ground.
“I thought 2008 was bad, but
some of the guys say it’s the worst spring they’ve ever seen,” Corbin
said. “It was the perfect weather for disease to take hold and for
standing water to stop seed germination. It’s just bad all around and
the guys are upset.”
The heat forecast for next week should help,
Corbin said.
Biringer Farm crews had to start over on the
planting of pumpkins and corn, Dianna Biringer said.
“We really
got clobbered with those crops,” she said. “We had to replant all of it,
and most people I have talked to are experiencing the same thing. The
full extent of the financial damage is yet to be seen.”
South of
Snohomish, Bob Ricci said 70 percent of his first planting of sweet corn
didn’t make it.
“I planted early and I knew that was a risk,”
Ricci said. “I figure as long as we have good weather at harvest time,
we’ll be OK.”
Farmers who raise corn and berries have been hit
particularly hard, said Holly Hedblom, acting county executive director
of the Farm Service Agency in Lake Stevens. The agency is a local branch
of the federal government.
Some corn farmers know their crop
won’t mature like it should but they’re giving it a try anyway, and
others are letting their fields lay fallow, Hedblom said.
Even
grass producers who raise hay are feeling the pain, she said. “It’s all
being impacted because it’s been so wet.”
Nobody has a monetary
damage estimate yet, she said.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture
disaster declaration would allow farmers to apply for disaster
assistance payments through several programs administered by the Farm
Service. Farmers may also be eligible for emergency low-interest loans
to cover production and farm property losses, the governor’s office
said.
To contact the Farm Service in Lake Stevens, call
425-335-5634.