Below freezing temperatures struck sections of Park County on May 20-21, impacting fields sporatically from Heart Mountain, along the Greybull river drainage and toward Lovell, said Allied Seed Company’s seed production fieldman Gary White. With about 90 frost-free days in the area, there was still time for replanting.
“We don’t like to stub our toe in the spring because we don’t like to lose any time,” White said. “It was really widespread.”
Western Sugar’s sugarbeet growers aren’t encouraged to replant after May 20, but there were some producers in the Colorado area who replanted as late as the first week of June and brought in a decent crop, said Western Sugar research agronomist Rebecca Larson.
“I think there were a few (alfalfa) fields where there was a complete loss, maybe one here and there,” White said. “What made it difficult were the fields where the crop was just emerging. It takes several days to see if the blank spots will fill in if they were frozen below ground.”
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) recording stations showed lows of 36 degrees in Powell and 37 in Cody, but the lower valleys can get cooler than that, said NOAA meteorologist Chris Hattings.
“Cold air tends to drain into the valleys,” Hattings said.
“Beets are really vulnerable right before they emerge,” White said. “Grains are very tolerant of freezing weather because their growing point is below ground for a while.”
Alfalfa is typically planted early in the spring, so that crop often runs a risk of encountering frost, White said.
Recently irrigated fields had less damage than drier fields, White said.
“Rain is a mixed blessing—rain is always good, but it prevents the growers from getting into fields,” White said.
Hail damage
Hail storms hit the region on May 15 too, impacting crops that had recently emerged from the ground.
Hail damage is even more spotty than cold pockets, producers have to check each field to see it since it can hail in one spot and not in another one nearby.
“It was early enough that it hasn’t been a severe damage situation,” White said.
The weather’s impact on the region’s sugar beets “wasn’t as bad as people thought,” Park County farmer Ric Rodriguez said.
Less than 300 acres of sugarbeets needed replanted due to the freeze, Larson said. Meanwhile, the hail storm damaged 6,000 acres of sugarbeets out of the region’s 17,500 acres. Fields near Heart Mountain and east and north of Powell were hit particularly hard, Rodriguez said.
“I’ve never seen it hail for 45 minutes straight,” Rodriguez said. “Luckily, we didn’t have severe wind with it, but it pounded everything bad.”
Barley also took some damage, but Rodriguez said it will bounce back and be fine. Hail aside, the spring’s cool weather was good for barley.
“It needs to stop raining, it is hard to spray herbicides to kill the weeds for the barley and beets,” Rodriguez said. “The wet weather isn’t good for sugarbeets, we need sunshine—especially for the ones damaged by the hail.”
Abnormal weather
The region’s weather is mostly dictated by ocean currents and temperatures out west.
A weather front brought cold weather down from Canada, Hattings said. Spring’s wet weather typically comes from the south through Colorado since the Powell area is in a rainshadow for the fronts brought in by the Pacific northwest—causing some of the lowest annual precipitation rates in the state on average years.
But, this year has been far from average.
“But then we get these crazy wet streaks that don’t make sense,” White said.
The Powell area typically has 6 inches of rain for the entire year, and May received about 3.6 inches of rainfall according to wunderground.com. Meanwhile, the University of Wyoming research center north of Powell had 2.13 inches of rainfall, Heart Mountain was around 4 inches and Willwood had about 6 inches of rainfall in May.
“It has been unusually wet in May,” Hattings said.
Fortunately, the rain didn’t all come at once and was spread out enough that the ground could soak it up without flooding any fields or drowning any crops.
February’s weather was more damaging than May’s, White said. Alfalfa fields were coming out of dormancy in February, then March was so dry that some fields dried up and there was some loss for alfalfa seed fields.
Weather has been unsual across the Rocky Mountain region with portions of Colorado near Yuma and Fort Morgan having sugarbeet test crops flooded out with more rain in one month than they typically get in an entire year at 13 inches as of May 28, Larson said.
Some Colorado sugarbeet growers are also facing 22 days in a row of rain.
Much like Powell, Nebraskan sugarbeet growers are facing cooler and wetter weather as well.
Looking ahead
It’s too early to tell what the harvest will look like considering the rocky start to the growing season.
“The longer it stays cool, the more we will need a hot spell,” White said.
The cool spring weather could mean a late release for alfalfa seed leaf cutters, which will shorten the pollenation season as well, White said. But, it might not impact the yield if the summer brings enough hot days for pollenation and blooming.
If the weather turns around this summer, then the region could have a good harvest, but it’s too early to tell, Rodriguez said.
Larson also said it’s too early to tell what this year’s harvest will be, but noted that the northern regions of the Rockies started with better sugar beet growth than usual.
Source: www.powelltribune.com