Recent cold snap hurts Missouri's fruit crop

NEW MELLE, Mo. -- Barry Shortt's peach orchard saw a 50 percent crop loss after a cold spell in 1995, but he predicts he will lose all eight acres of his peaches because of the recent cold snap.

"We have never had this much cold this far into the season," said Shortt, who owns Wind Ridge Farm in New Melle in eastern Missouri. "We've had cold snaps, but not like this."

A warm March followed by record low temperatures in April has wreaked havoc on fruit crops in Missouri -- perhaps the worst damage in more than a decade.

Hal Swaney of the Missouri Farm Bureau's board of directors said the unusual weather has dealt fruit producers a "true economic blow."

Temperatures over the weekend in parts of the state dipped into the high teens and low 20s.

Fruits like apples, peaches and grapes in their early stages of development cannot survive several nights of below-freezing temperatures.

Jim Anderson, executive director for the Missouri Wine and Grape Board, said warm weather in March caused primary and secondary grape buds to grow earlier than usual. Low temperatures froze both sets of buds, leading to greater loss, he said.

"We're going to see a lot of damage," Anderson said. The board will survey more than 1,200 acres of Missouri grapes in the coming week to determine exactly how much was lost.

But there's not much farmers can do to salvage crops at this point.

Anderson and several farmers said some methods used to save fruits aren't effective when crops have gone through such low temperatures for several nights.

Ed Smith, owner of Bristle Ridge Winery in Montserrat in west central Missouri, said he lost 90 percent of his new vines that had about 1.5 inches of growth so far this season.

"With several acres, it just isn't feasible to try and wrap the vines. With temperatures in the teens, there is really nothing you can do," Smith said.

Rodger Luetjen, owner of Eichenberg Winery in Cole Camp, also in west central Missouri, said that surplus grapes from surrounding states may be hard to come by.

Luetjen said frost had done extensive damage to week- to nine-day-old shoots on the winery's four acres in Cole Camp. He said the winery contracts with growers in southern Missouri, and that "hopefully they won't be as hard hit down there."

"The vines won't die, but this year's crop is definitely questionable," Luetjen said.