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Michigan apples follow higher trend across U.S.

By SHELLY STRAUTZ-SPRINGBORN
Michigan Correspondent

STANTON, Mich. — Favorable growing conditions have led to a bumper apple crop this fall in Michigan.

Terry Anderson, owner of Anderson & Girls Orchards in Stanton, said, “This is the biggest crop we’ve had in 10 years. We have a big, big crop and so does everybody else in the whole country. Boxes are short, and storage space is short.”

According to the Michigan Field Office of the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, the state’s crop is predicted to yield more than 26 million bushels of apples – up 13 million bushels from 2008 and 7 million higher than the state’s average.

Nationwide, about 241 million boxes of fresh and processed apples are projected, up from 233 million boxes last year and higher than the five-year average of 229 million boxes, according to the USDA annual apple forecast.

While growing conditions have been nearly ideal this season, Anderson is a little concerned about getting his entire crop harvested.

“We need about three weeks of sunshine,” he said. “With this rainy weather it’s hard to get stuff harvested.”

Much of Michigan has experienced rainy conditions nearly every day for the last two weeks, and forecasts call for rain through mid-October. Yet, Anderson is optimistic.

“I think we’re going to make it,” he said. “There’s some places where guys don’t think they’re going to get them all harvested. There’s just so many apples that some guys out there don’t think they have a market for them.”

Steve Klackle, owner of Klackle Orchards in Greenville, said he lost 10-15 percent of his apple crop in some parts of his orchards during an August storm that brought “a little touch of hail and some high winds.” But, he is still experiencing a good quality crop with high yields.

“Everybody is right in the thick harvest,” he said. “Most of the guys are just finishing with some of the varieties that come before Red Delicious. Reds are the most widely grown and the one that has the biggest crop on it. Hopefully this weather will straighten out, but we’re working through it.

“There might turn out to be a bin shortage as we move through the last part of harvest,” Klackle added, which is just another indication that yields are higher than usual.

He said another challenge with the larger yields is the potential for the bottom to fall out of the market. “I’ve heard rumblings in the marketplace that the prices are low,” Klackle said. “That usually comes with a big crop.

“I’ve heard guys talking about low quotes to the grocery stores. We’re getting the same talk with processors. They’ll tell us, ‘We don’t know what we need now, why don’t you just store them for us and we will talk in the spring.’”

In western Michigan’s Fruit Ridge area, which spans Kent, Muskegon and Ottawa counties, growers also were hit by the August storm, but yields there appear favorable.

Anna Blok, an owner of Blok Orchard in Kent County, said their crop “is doing real well,” this year. “Some years you do have more than other years. Last year it was a smaller crop. About every other year we seem to have more of them.”

Michigan is the third largest producer of apples in the United States, contributing $700 million to the state’s economy. About 950 family-operated orchards are located throughout the state’s Lower Peninsula.

10/14/2009