Weather takes a toll on farms
EUGENE, Ore. - Record-setting spring rains have put farm crops at risk for disease and pushed backed the date that fruits and vegetables will be ready for market.
"I'm seeing a lot of mud," Lively said. "It looks a lot more like March than it looks like June." | Current forecast for Eugene | Current forecast for Springfield
The season got off to a good start. Then a wetter than usual May set in, followed by record-setting rain in early June.
"We haven't been able to get in with tillers or hoes because it's so muddy that it would just clump up in the equipment," Lively said.
The result: "I think what you are going to see is a lot of later produce. And I would say that you will definitely see less of some things."
And produce currently in production is going to waste.
"By Saturday, pretty much all the melons we had planted had root rotted and died in spots," Lively said. "We just had big rows of dead melons."
HOW DO YOU LIKE THIS WEATHER? Share videos and photos on KVAL.com - and we'll show them on KVAL 13 TV News.
Garlic isn't doing any better.
"Two weeks ago this field of garlic was entirely green," Lively said. "Now you see a lot of yellow leaves in there. That's actually a fungus called rust."
And it's destroying the garlic bulbs.
Over at the Thursday Farmers Market in downtown Eugene, farm stands tell a similar story.
"Like our radishes, they're all cracked and sort of," said Erin Hertog with Horton Road Organics. "We're not getting as much as we normally do."
