UTAH COUNTY, Utah — Farmers are hopeful that a state of emergency declared by Utah Governor Spencer Cox will offer them a silver lining to a season lost to an April freeze that hit fruit trees statewide.
We've shared several stories with you of how the sudden low temperatures devastated orchards from Fruit Heights to southern Utah County and beyond.
It all started with Utah’s unusually mild winter, which brought on an early bloom.
That meant nearly all the fruit trees around the state couldn’t escape Mother Nature’s unforgiving chill when it decided to make one more late appearance.
“We had back-to-back nights of 24, 25 degrees - and it wiped everything out,” said Kent Pyne, owner of Pyne Farms in Santaquin.
Curtis Rowley says they tried watering their orchards at Cherry Hill Farms on those freezing nights to manage the temperatures, but still met the same fate.
“This type of a frost that we got this year, is one that doesn’t happen very often,” said Rowley, who could think of only two other occasions (one in 1990, another in 2002) where they’d suffered significant crop loss.
Rowley says the resulting emergency declaration is similarly unusual: “It makes us all wonder what it really means.”
Matt Hargreaves and the Utah Farm Bureau said it’s about getting through to next year for their members.
“It has the potential to unlock some financial resources that our state department of agriculture is going to make available,” Hargreaves said.
UDAF is now open to applications for low-interest, emergency disaster relief loans of up to $100,000 related to the emergency.
The department says the loan program will be accepting applications related to this emergency for the next six months, until November 15.
There are 10 counties included for applications: Box Elder, Cache, Davis, Iron, Juab, Millard, Sanpete, Piute, Weber, and Utah.
These farmers tell me the loans can go a long way to lifting some of the weight of costs they’ve already incurred and others they still face - even with a farm that lies dormant.
“There’s a lot of expenses that went out before the frost,” said Rowley, noting his team at Cherry Hill Farm had done all their pruning for the year, only for the freeze to set in.
Rowley said they’re fortunate to have other locations in Idaho and in Hurricane.
Hargreaves noted the southern Utah town was one of the only areas not to get hit hard, and still has its peaches.
But Rowley knows the losses they’ve suffered will have a ripple effect.
“Just right here in the Santaquin-Payson area, they hire over 600 people to come in and work during the cherry process,” Rowley said.
So Hargreaves hopes these funds opening up will bear some fruit for farmers who were iced out of their own supply. He also hopes that local customers will also help these farm stands and fruit growers to feel the warmth of their community.
“Having a bridge like this to cover some of their bills…for some, it’s critical,” Hargreaves said. “For some, it can really mean the ability to continue on year after year.”
