04/09/07 Moving Along Normally

I'm really not sure I should use the word "normal" when it comes to farming. Any type of farming! It just seems like things are going along, well, normally and wham&something jumps up and bites you. The tree fruit industry is coming off a fairly good last year and of course we can talk about those things that jumped out at us last year like the big rain just as the cherry harvest was about to start or the freak hail storm that pummeled the apples and pears. But all in all, so far this year our good friend Tim Smith says&it's normal. SMITH: Things are moving along sort of normally to tell you the truth, the timing of the year is about normal. The bloom stage for this time of year is if anything only a day or two ahead of usual, and that's different. You know we've had some wild swings in last few years. Very early two years ago. So things are looking pretty reasonable right now. My lovely wife has this little superstition about saying things out loud. Hmmmm. I hope we haven't jinxed it. I have received a few reports of frost damage in some areas and I asked Tim about it. SMITH: You know it's a huge industry and the conditions are spread across 200 miles so (laughing) you know  and 2500 feet elevation difference. I'm sure some people got hurt pretty badly in some areas. You can't say straight out that nobody got hurt but I doubt that there was anything significant to the production of the industry. That's today's "normal" Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.