Utah's fruit growers have suffered a $20 million loss this year because of a disastrous frost in late April and early May, Utah Department of Agriculture officials said Wednesday.
Van Burgess, director of plant industry for the department, said he met Tuesday with the state's fruit farmers and he believes 80 percent of Utah's biggest fruit area - Utah County - was hammered by the cold."Some orchards in Payson have practically no fruit on the trees at all. Some growers say they have lost 400 to 500 acres of fruit. We've really had it bad this year," Burgess said.
"One of the biggest sweet-cherry growers in Utah County says he has lost 70 percent of his crop and the 300 high school youths he hires to pick fruit each summer will simply be out of jobs."
Burgess said southern Utah orchards also experienced widespread damage to fruit crops, but northern Utah escaped much of the cold weather and may not have had as much damage as other areas of the state.
Anthony H. Hatch, Provo, Utah State University Extension fruit specialist, said the hardest hit areas of the state are all in Utah County, including Salem, Payson, Santaquin, Genola and Alberta.
"Otherwise, the damage to fruit from the cold is spotty. Some orchards sustained little or no damage, and others were badly hit - in the same vicinities north, south and central."
Hatch said an early, warm spring this year caused trees to blossom early, and when temperatures dropped to 21 degrees for several hours on one day in late April and hit 28 to 29 degrees for four or five hours on another day in early May, many fruit crops were wiped out.
Even so, Hatch said, there are enough orchards scattered throughout the state that did not sustain damage that there will be plenty of fruit for families to eat and for home canning this year.
"There should be plenty of fruit at roadside stands. You won't have to think of going out of state to buy fruit for your table."
He also said there will be a need for pickers this year in many orchards and he hopes migrant laborers will not think Utah's fruit crops have been wiped out totally and stay away from the state this summer and fall.
"There will be plenty of jobs for migrants, but not nearly as many in Utah County as in other years," he said. "We really won't be able to assess the total fruit losses until the middle of July."
Hatch estimates, for the entire state, that about 40 percent of the apricots have been destroyed. "They should be ready for harvest within two weeks and then through the first week in July."
He said 30 percent to 40 percent of the state's sweet-cherry crop has been ruined by the cold. "But again, damage is spotty. Some orchards will have bumper crops of sweet cherries, and some won't have any."
Sweet cherries, he said, will be ready for harvest about June 20 and will be picked through the first week in July.
Utah is No. 2 in the nation in the production of tart cherries and, statewide, the tartcherry crop has sustained a loss of 30 percent or more, he said. "They are normally ready for harvest the third or fourth week of July through the 10th of August."
Utah's pear crop suffered the least damage, he said, and the crop this year should be about 90 percent of normal. "We usually pick pears from the middle of August until the beginning of September."
Peaches in Utah will be down by 30 percent or more, and apples, one of the hardest hit crops this year, suffered a 40 percent to 50 percent loss, he said.
"We generally harvest peaches from the last of July through the first of September and pick apples from the middle of September until late October."
Burgess said other states have experienced fruit damage this year, too. He said California has had hard, steady rains that may cut that state's fruit crop this year, and orchards in the Northwestern states have also sustained damage from rain.
Hatch said Michigan, the No. 1 tart-cherry state in the nation, has had problems with its cherry crop this year.
"If other states' orchards have suffered as much damage as we have, whatever fruit our commercial growers can harvest may sell for a premium," Hatch said.
"And whatever fruit we have in storage, such as frozen cherries and apples, can be sold," Hatch said.