Damage of peaches and cherries is expected in west central and northern Michigan from a Monday frost, said Ken Nye, horticulture and forestry specialist at the Michigan Farm Bureau, while damage from a Tuesday frost is projected in the eastern part of the state.
“Generally, everything is still too recent to really assess the damage,” Nye said in a Tuesday email.
Because of the unpredictability of the weather, it is unclear what effect the earlier growing season and freezes may have on crop prices for consumers.
Since the growing season has moved up a month, frost poses a threat to budding crops - especially fruit - through June, said Jeff Andresen, agricultural meteorology professor at Michigan State University and the state climatologist.
“The problem is that in many cases as those plants and crops come out of dormancy, they rapidly lose their resistance to cold temperatures,” Andresen said.
Michigan’s fruit and tree nut industry - made up mainly of apples, blueberries and tart cherries - generates $350 million a year in revenue, depending on price and yield, according to the Michigan Field Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“We produce 70 percent of the tart cherries in the U.S.,” said Bob Boehm, manager of the Michigan Farm Bureau’s commodity and marketing department. “If we have a problem, it affects all of the U.S.”
But the warmer weather also could benefit the state’s agricultural industry. If the warmer weather continues, it could help improve the harvest of field crops, such as corn, soybeans, wheat and sugar beets, Boehm and Andresen said. Nurseries and greenhouses also might cash in on earlier sales of flowers and other greenery.
For now, the biggest worry focuses on freezes.
Bruce Upston said he and his wife Jan already are worried because their 55-acre Wasem Fruit Farm in Milan does not have freeze protection equipment because of its cost.
“It’s something you gamble and hope you can get by without,” he said.
The farm is about a month ahead on its apple, pear, peach and raspberry growing compared with last year, Upston said. Consequently, he said he also is concerned his apples and pears will ripen in August rather than September.
“People don’t think about apples in August as much,” he said. “The apple-picking business is more fall-oriented.”
Abby Jacobson owns Westview Orchards in Romeo, where she anticipates the cherries and peaches will bloom this week. A damaged crop would hurt her, she said.
“We have fixed costs,” said Jacobson, whose family has grown apples, peaches and pears since 1813. “If there’s half a crop on the tree, that doesn’t mean that we prune or fertilize or control insects half as much. Our land taxes won’t be less. Our payments on tractors or other equipment won’t be less.”
No safeguards
Growers can use frost protection measures such as large fans that blow colder air away from the ground or overhead sprinklers.
These tactics might make a difference of a few degrees, but if the temperature stays at freezing levels for multiple hours, there’s little a grower can do, Boehm said.
“You can do everything right,” he said, “but if Mother Nature wants to freeze off overnight, you could lose it all.”
There has never been a spring in Michigan when there has not been freezing temperatures at night, Andresen said.
“Typically we see an average of nine or 10 freeze events in April, May and June - that’s 32 degrees or less,” Andresen said.
Based on his research of the 10 warmest Marches on record in Michigan, he predicts the state this year instead may experience eight freezes.
Field crop farmers have a lower risk of frost because they decide when to plant the crops, while fruit farmers can’t control when their trees bud. But most farmers are taking a risk and choosing to plant field crops early to get a jump on the market, according to Boehm and Tom Durand, owner and operator of Durand Farms in Croswell, which grows corn, sugar beets, wheat and soybeans.
Most farmers in the Thumb area around Port Huron already have planted sugar beets, Durand said.
“Many farmers will remember how delayed they were last spring with a very wet May and will want to take this opportunity to plant early,” Boehm said.
Greenhouse boost
A less publicized beneficiary of the warmer weather may be nurseries and greenhouses. Michigan is a large annual bedding plant producer, ranked first in flowers that include begonias, geraniums, impatiens and petunias.
“Last year was rainy and cold and people weren’t buying annual plants,” Boehm said. “This year, there is a big demand for everything early.”
The high demand for most commodities is another incentive to plant now, he said.
Planting an earlier crop doesn’t necessarily mean more harvest, Durand said, and lower prices for consumers aren’t guaranteed if there is a bumper crop.
“A lot of a crop’s cost is determined by the cost of gas,” he said. "... That plays a lot more of a factor than an early planting season.”
The anticipation of a bigger-yielding crop is why Mike Fusilier of Fusilier Farms in Manchester said he already has sugar snap peas, spinach and lettuce in the ground. But it depends on what happens during the next two months, he said.
“We’re constantly looking at the forecast,” Fusilier said. “Mother Nature gives us a new set of rules every year that we have to figure out.”
“You can do everything right. But if Mother Nature wants to freeze off overnight, you could lose it all.”
Bob Boehm, manager of the Michigan Farm Bureau’s commodity and marketing department
