From too much rain to a trade war with China, Michigan farmers have more than their share of challenges this year. Peach growers in southwest Michigan have their own struggles, all due to the polar vortex in January that dropped temperatures down to 18-below zero. That killed a large number of trees according to Stover’s Farm Market general manager Kenny Stover in Berrien Springs. He tells our partners at WSBT-TV they have little to no crop.
“This is going to be a long stretch with little to no income,” from the crop says Stover. He adds peaches are normally about 20% of their business, but they try to plan for downturns as much as possible.
“That’s what the gamble is in farming is you can have a couple really, really good years and you just can’t go crazy with what you do with the money.”
He says they’ve removed more than 1,000 trees and fears the entire orchard could wind up dying from this past winter’s damage within five years. However, Stover says new trees have been ordered to replace what’s lost. It’ll just take a few years for those to mature and start producing fruit.
