After a warm, dry winter, the Arkansas Valley in Southeastern Colorado welcomed news that snow was coming last weekend. And come it did. On Friday morning, March 27, La Junta Municipal Airport reported that it was 19.4 degrees at 8 a.m. Snow had fallen during the night and eight to 24 inches covered the ground in La Junta, Swink, Rocky Ford and Cheraw.
For many in the agricultural community, the moisture was welcome.
“We measured 13 inches of snow and received 75 hundreths of an inch of moisture,” stated Mike Bartolo, manager of the Arkansas Valley Research Center. “The soil profile was very dry. Everything under the ground was stressed. The moisture alleviated that to some extent. The moisture did a world of good.”
Byron Knapp of Knapp Farms in Rocky Ford agreed. “The storm was 100 percent beneficial. All the ground was dry. The moisture put us in a better position to farm.”
Knapp and his family have been farming in the Valley for six generations. They raise vegetables, melons, alfalfa and corn.
“The moisture was good for our wheat and onions,” said Sharon Shane of Shane Farms in La Junta. “Cantaloupe is our primary crop, but we won’t start planting until the 16th of April. We really needed the moisture.”
“We need more moisture,” added Gary Hanagan, whose family has been farming in the Valley since 1958. “It was wonderful. It didn’t drift too bad.”
While some farmers were happy with the moisture, those who raise fruit have lost part of their crop as a result of the storm and the low temperatures that followed.
“Six degree temperatures are too low,” stated Larry Lusk of Lusk Farms. “The peaches that have bloomed are ruined or badly damaged. We’ll see about the blooms that are still on the bud.”
Frank Ghilarducci of Ghilarducci Farms lost his apricot crop. “They bloom earlier than anything else,” he said. “They are not very smart. My peaches that were in full bloom are all frozen now. I don’t know what the outcome will be. There was not enough monetary value in my crop to warrant anti-frost measures. We are not in fruit country.” Ghiradelli said that he will continue to grow fruit, however, because he enjoys working with the trees.
Both Lusk and Ghilarducci have hope for their apple crops, which were just beginning to bloom. “We still have about a month where it could freeze,” Lusk said.
In 2008, the late freeze on April 27 caused a total loss of the apple crop, said Tony Ferrara, owner of Happy Apple Farms in Penrose.
“If we had gotten down to 15 degrees we would have been hit real hard, but 18 and 19 was alright. This freeze was almost a blessing in disguise,” he said. “It thinned out the smaller buds so you get bigger apples. Hopefully we’re out of the woods. We can’t handle a late April frost. We sweat it out in April, but try to stay positive.”
Ferrara said that there are six stages in blossoming. “Luckily we were in two and three,” he stated. “The Jonathan and Gala were a little farther along so we may have gotten dinged there.”
During the selling season when his supply gets low, Ferrara purchases fruit from the Western Slope. “They’re okay there,” he said. “The cherries might have gotten hit, though.”
Happy Apple Farms has 3,000 apple trees of different varieties. It is the largest u-pick farm in Colorado. Happy Apple Farms also grow blackberries, raspberries and pumpkins. The farm opens in early August and visitors can pick Jonathan and Gala Apples, blackberries and raspberries. For more information about the farm, log onto http://www.happyapplefarm.com/.
In the landscaping business, the trees do not seem to be affected. “I didn’t have trouble in the blizzard,” stated Bill Seamans of Swink, who raises landscaping trees. “It was a help. It didn’t break anything up.”
Steve Vanhook of Vanhook’s Fruit & Vegetable Market in La Junta said that he “lucked out.”
“Most of our trees were protected. It did freeze some of the blossoms off of our trees that were out, but we were prepared. People have been wondering because they had bought stuff, but all of it should come out,” he said.
La Junta, Colo. —
