A Problem Season

Tree fruit season is beginning to wind down and while it has been a fairly good season there have been a load of challenges this year. You've heard all about the early spring that kept most of the crops running at least a week if not two or more early this year. Most of the crops have had pretty good seasons although none have been really record breaking and it wasn't really to be expected. Then of course we threw in the extreme heat and lack of water. On top of that, there have been the massive wildfires once again which have created a lot of problems for getting fruit harvested. Add to that the issues with lack of labor and some of the labor problems regarding payments of break times and it has been a rough year. BJ Thurlby heads up NW Cherries and the Washington State Fruit Commission. He's heard a lot from producers this year and talks about some of the challenges.

THURLBY: June was the single hottest month above normal in the history of recorded weather in the state of Washington and Oregon. And when you look at the numbers what does that mean? June averaged 8 degrees hotter per day throughout the entire month and it goes back. Like in 1990, January was 6 degrees per day warmer than ever but when it's June here and we're already at 106 at 10 o'clock in the morning which is what we were seeing, that is just unbelievable.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.