Early frost damages crops in Eastern Idaho

FREMONT COUNTY - Freezing temperatures overnight Sunday and Monday are causing concern for farmers. And that's especially true in Fremont County. The past two nights have seen some severe frosts in many parts of Eastern Idaho and especially in Fremont County.

In Fremont County most crops were planted behind schedule, and now they're growing season is getting cut short.

The early frost is forcing many potato farmers to kill vines and wait for their spuds to finish plumping up.

"It's just been a pretty tough year for farmers to get their crops in and to now get them harvested. It's been a cold growing season, this entire summer. It's been short," said Lance Ellis, an Extension Agent for Fremont County.

Add to this the dew factor, crops can't be harvest before 1pm or after 6:30 p.m., so farmers have a short time window to work each day before the end of the season is upon them.

"I think there's a lot of the upper country grain still green, and I think you're going to see some frost damage in it. I think this frost is really going to be a problem here." said Wade Trost with Trost Feed and Seed in St. Anthony.

Since many farmers planted grain 2 or even 3 weeks late in Fremont County, some will have to wait a little bit longer to harvest the rest of their crops. But the amount of frost damage is still undetermined.

"We just don't know how severe the damage is going to be at this point yet," said Trost.

The good news is that tonight and the rest of the week are not going to dip below freezing.

So farmers have about a week to harvest their crops before more freezing temperatures damage more of their crops.

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• early
• frost
• farmers
• crops
• eastern
• idaho