BOISE, Idaho — Idaho is home to nearly 25,000 farms and ranches, making it the third-largest agricultural state in the west, according to the Idaho State Department of Agriculture.
But the size and bounty of the crops Idaho farmers can grow depends on the weather. A late-season harvest is less than ideal for farmers, but they are staying positive no matter what the weather brings.
"You deal with what mother nature throws at you," local Idaho farmer Galen Lee said.
Galen Lee and Matt Dorsey both farm in the Treasure Valley. According to them, this year's weather posed some unique challenges for this harvest season.
"It delayed harvest for you know, ten days to two weeks in a lot of cases from what we normally would be on the calendar," Lee said. "Some guys were planting different crops because of the lack of water."
"You'll see probably a third yield loss across the board on most crops," Dorsey said.
KTVB meteorologist Bri Eggers also said 2022 was dryer than normal.
"In January, December — the winter had slowed down so much, we weren't getting the precipitation, so I think that's when we really started to worry about water," Eggers said, "and then the spring arrived, and we got all of that cool, wet spring weather that we really needed through January and February. So, spring kind of lingered through the month of June."
But then the summer hit.
"We started off really wet and cold, so, the crops didn't want to start to grow, didn't want to come up," Dorsey said. "When it got so hot, they didn't want to grow either. They just kind of wanted to, you know, stop and shut down."
This summer was unusually hot; so much so, that it ended up being the second hottest summer on record for Boise, Eggers said. The record was also set for the most triple-digit days on record, with 27 days of 100°+ weather.
"We had some later maturity on a lot of the crops this year," Lee said. "Onions were later to be harvested, grain was later to be harvested. Beans were later. My corn silage was later."
Bad weather also means less money for farmers. Dorsey said most years they hope for a 10% return on whatever they spend to raise their crops. But this year was a different story.
"It costs the same to raise the crop," Dorsey said. "So, you know, that comes right off the top of the loss."
It is a similar situation for Lee.
"The bottom line is going to be pretty tight this year," Lee said. "It'll be break even, probably at best on most the stuff I'm doing."
Lee said that is just part of the job, and he is staying positive regardless.
"We're farming out here," he said. "We're working with mother nature, and whatever she throws at us, we take it, we work with it, and we deal with it and move on," Lee said.
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