Utah farmers say crops will be delayed by weeks because of late spring

LAYTON, Utah — It’s a really robust time for Utah farmers who’re a number of weeks behind within the planting season due to all of the snow. For shoppers, this implies most of the contemporary merchandise you see at farmers markets are going to be delayed.

“We really feel fortunate to get a tractor within the area after the spring we’ve had,” stated Tyson Roberts, who runs Roberts Household Farms in Layton.

KSL TV was there Monday as he lastly obtained an opportunity to fireside up the tractor and until the bottom for the primary time this season.

“Very anxious to get seeds into the bottom,” Roberts stated.

Final yr at the moment, all of his onions had been planted for weeks. However this yr, due to all of the snow, they’re means behind.

“We’re a few month behind planting some crops proper now,” Roberts stated. “Lots of people hoping for candy corn on the Fourth of July, in all probability going to be a pair weeks later.”

For this sixth era farmer, whose household has run this land since 1848, that additionally means a delay in cash.

“If harvest is late, paychecks are late,” he stated. “A vegetable farm like mine, we make all of our cash in about three months out of the yr.”

However, Roberts admits, final yr was bone dry, and water is what they’ve been praying for ever since.

“It’s robust to complain about getting what you ask for.”

About 20 miles north of Roberts’ is Ron Gibson — one other sixth era farmer who farms 2,000 acres of land and runs Inexperienced Acres Dairy in Ogden. He’s additionally the president of the Utah Farm Bureau. All of his gear continues to be idle. He’s not capable of fireplace up his tractors as a result of his floor continues to be too moist.

“That is our fourth day of excellent climate. Simply beneath right here we now have mud balls,” Gibson stated to KSL TV.

And to make issues worse, one other space of his fields are coated in a few foot of water in some locations.

“It hits us dangerous once we lose 300 to 500 acres of land,” Gibson stated. “We’ve got to have water to develop it, and we’ve been praying for that for therefore a few years. However this yr, we obtained just a bit bit a lot.”

And proper subsequent to his fields is the Weber River, which is already operating very excessive, and the run off hasn’t even gotten underway.

“We’ve obtained flooding danger, and we’re all making an attempt to determine what fields we plant and what we don’t plant,” he stated. “We do all the things we are able to, however we are able to’t management Mom Nature.”

That’s why farmers are so robust.

“If there’s one factor about farmers, I believe they’re resilient, type of have an optimistic thoughts,” Roberts stated.