If it's been said once, its been said a thousand times. Farmers are always complaining about the weather. When it's supposed to be sunny it's rainy and when it's supposed to be rainy it's sunny. They just never seem to be happy.
Our farmers, your farmers, work hard to nurture their crops and plan to make the most of every stage of their life cycle.
I'm by no means an expert, but I can pass along what little knowledge I do have as to why this is.
Here it is.
When it's bad, it's really bad. For example, it's Spring.
The trees are blooming.
The sun is shining and the bees are buzzing.
Perfect conditions for the making of a great upcoming crop.
A quick note for those that may learning along with me:
1) Almond trees are cross pollinators. Hence, a minimum number of bee work hours is very helpful, if not essential, for the start of a good crop. Bees are, by nature, fair weather workers and will not come out of the cozy hive if the weather conditions are not perfect.
2) These trees will only bloom once. If you loose your blooms, your loose your crop. If you loose your crop you've lost your annual income.
Back to spring conditions. Perfect conditions until the wind starts to blow,
the rain continues to fall, temperatures drop to freezing multiple nights in a row,
and it starts to hail and in some cases snow.
Another quick note:
When temps. do reach close to freezing, the farmer sets his frost alarm, gets woken up, usually in the middle of the night, and goes out into the orchard to "turn water on", turn on the sprinklers in an attempt to keep the blooms from freezing.
So, as you can see, mother nature can be a cruel mistress and as such, farmers will continue to complain about the weather.
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While this entry might be oversimplified I hope that I was able to shed some light as to why, yes, farmers always complain about the weather. All this, and they still LOVE what they do! Thank you Farmers.
As always, thanks for visiting.
~Amy G.
