In his 32 years of farming in the South Valley, only a few times
has Kip Brundage seen the weather wreak havoc on his hay crops like
it has this year.
In his 32 years of farming in the South Valley, only a few times has Kip Brundage seen the weather wreak havoc on his hay crops like it has this year.
“I saw this in 1977 when it rained through the entire month of May,” said Brundage, president of the South Santa Clara County Farm Bureau and owner of G&K Farms. “Five years ago it rained all the way until June.”
While farmers expect and hope for a nearly dry and warm April and May, last month more than three inches of rain fell in Morgan Hill, more than 2.5 inches in Gilroy and sporadic rains have continued into this month, causing all kinds of problems for fruit and vegetable growers all across the area.
“This is a disaster,” Brundage said. “We’re not like the Midwest and flooded, but at one point you might as well be. It’s not just hurting us a little, it’s hurting us a lot.”
Brundage said his hay fields need seven days of dry, warm weather to be harvested, but with rain falling almost every other day, the hay has started laying down as the heads become too saturated and heavy.
“The quality of the crops is decreasing, and any continuing of this weather would ruin them,” he said.
When asked if there was anything a farmer could do to alleviate the problem, the answer was simple.
“No.”
While Brundage can’t harvest his crop and slowly watches the quality of his product plummet, other farmers are seeing problems of their own. Lettuce growing in the fields has become moldy; wheat growers are losing as much as half of their crop; the sod business is down 40 percent, and farmers are unable to harvest grass; and stone fruits, like apricots or cherries, have suffered from a mild winter that made trees bloom sporadically and didn’t give the fruit time to set.
Strawberry farmers, like Tim Chiala, may be suffering the worst of everyone, reporting their lowest yields in years.
“Instead of picking 200 to 300 boxes per day, were doing 100 boxes two or three times a week,” said Chiala, who has 17-acres of his George Chiala Farms in Morgan Hill used for growing strawberries and also grows garlic, corn and bell peppers. “There’s not much you can do, you can’t cultivate, you can’t spray for insects.”
Not only are the yields low, but the strawberries get marked up from the rain and can mold if there is too much water.
Chiala said he invests $5,000 to $10,000 per acre on strawberries, but will probably be coming up negative on his return.
“It’s not up to you,” he said. “You just hope it gets sunny, and you hope some wind picks up to dry it out after it rains.”
Below-average temperatures also have affected Don Hordness’ mushrooms. Although he grows them indoors at Del Fresh Mushrooms in Morgan Hill, Hordness said that he uses heating or air conditioning as a way to control humidity, usually cooling 70-degree air at this time of year to a better growing temperature of 63 degrees. But with temperatures in the low 60s, Hordness can’t use air conditioning to suck the water out of the air, which can lead to bacteria growing on the mushrooms.
“It’s harder for us to dry out our product,” Hordness said. “There are natural bacteria in the air. When the conditions are right, they grow much faster and that becomes a problem.”
“What it means for the consumer is they just import it out of Mexico,” Brundage said. “They still get the product, but they don’t get the quality. It has helped with not needing to do irrigation , but we need the water in a timely manner.”
The rain and cool weather have also hurt Baskin Robbins – which caters to sunnier weather for its ice cream treats.
“People don’t buy ice cream when it’s raining, and our sales are down $6,000 for the month of April,” said Jim Richards, owner of Baskin Robbins at the Cochrane Plaza in Morgan Hill.
For some, the rain is a positive thing. Mark Blohm, a state Department of Forestry captain, said firefighters are pushing back the start of fire season two weeks to May 26.
The National Weather Service predicts the South Valley will see an average level of rainfall for May.
