Recent storm causing concern for farmers

Wendy Alexander/The Madera Tribune

A hail storm hit Madera on February 28 in a series of winter storms throughout the valley.

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Although the rain was a welcome sight for dealing with the drought and the snowpack is nice to see for farmers, almond farmers are quite concerned with last week’s storm and another one coming up.

“It wasn’t a good time for a storm,” said Jay Mahil, President of Creekside Farming that grows almonds and grapes. “I say it all the time that growers love rain and snow, but it was a difficult time when it came. We had a lot of rain and cold during bloom time. Bee flight hours are way down. It’s going to affect the crop. To what extent, we don’t know, yet. We will see what it does to the almond crop. It’s the only crop that is in limbo. Everything else is dormant. A light crop in the almond industry wouldn’t be a bad deal. We have a lot of almonds to sell, still. We will have to see how light it will be.”

Rain is still good to help with the ag industry, but when it hails or rains hard, it can cause quite a bit of damage. There are still people in the mountains feeling the effect from the last storm, which had many feet of snow fall.