Weather, drought and farming

We've been reporting on drought in Idaho all summer long, and I called Idaho Farm Bureau spokesperson Sean Ellis to find out how Idaho farmers are progressing with their crops. David Sparks, Idaho AG today. Speaker 2: Just depends on where you live, what system you're on and this and that. But in general, the upper snake reservoir that supplies East Idaho farmers and, you know, all the way down into Magic Valley are doing worse than the guys in the Treasure Valley because the Treasure Valley, the reservoir systems up there, arrow Rock, Anderson, Lucky Peak, we're better off. They were in better condition in general than the reservoirs in Upper East Idaho. So in general, the farmers in southern Idaho from the Magic Valley on the east are doing worse. I've heard some farmers are not going to be loving life with the water they get this year, and other farmers are going to be okay. Just depends where you're at. Certainly not a good situation. But it's you know, it just depends where you're at, how bad it is. Speaker 1: North Idaho. Speaker 2: North Idaho has got too much water to start off the season. They didn't have a good snow year. I was told by a couple farmers up there they had a hard time planting because they just got too much water. Early spring. What they're getting right now, I'm not sure, but the production numbers we have right now are estimates. The next couple of three months, we're going to start getting some hard numbers for the grains, potatoes, sugar, beets, hay, everything. And then we'll know. I guess the big question mark right now, Dave, is will all the farmers not have enough water to finish off their crops? So the crops got planted, whether they'll have enough water to finish them off and get the yields they need to try to make some money. Speaker 1: If they're not making money, it's not because Idaho farmers aren't trying awfully hard.