US (IA): Drought hits melon farmers
Water isn't much of an issue in Muscatine, but the heat is. It's bringing the fruit on early - too early.
"Everything south of us sounds like it's gone, the lower end of Minnesota they're coming on heavy too," says melon farmer George Taylor.
"We're at least two weeks if not a little more ahead of schedule."
harvester's working for Taylor typically gather between 600 and 800 cantaloupes a day, this year, however, they have been bringing in over a thousand a day. This puts the farm onto a schedule that is not sustainable.
"We're getting everything out and by the end of August, which is when we start thinking about ending, we're going to be done," says Taylor.
Squishing the season puts a glut of melons at farm stands. And Bookkeeper Linda Taylor says that pinches their pockets.
"The supply is more than the demand is, so the cost of the cantaloupe and watermelons, the price is reduced quite drastically," says Linda Taylor.
In just a week, the farm has had to cut it's price on cantaloupes from two dollars to one. A fifty percent decrease. They had their suspicions about this year.
"We thought it was because it was an early spring, we didn't really have a spring, it went from winter to summer almost," says Linda.
But nothing like this.
Source: kwqc.com
