ROCKY FORD– Damaging Hail And Heavy Rainfall have left their mark in Otero County. This week hail struck numerous growing watermelons and cantaloupes at Hirakata Farms.
Hirakata Farms is a family-owned and operated melon farm outside of Rocky Ford, Colorado. Michael Hirakata has been working on the farm his whole life and is a fourth-generation farmer. Hirakata Farms grows watermelons, cantaloupes, pumpkins, field corn, and more.
Hirakata says because of the weather this summer, the growing season has been unusual.
“The growing season has been really weird I guess you can say, it's been very wet. We have not gotten as much heat as we thought we would. It's growing well, everything is growing well but we are a little behind schedule,” Hirakata said.
Hirakata infers he is anywhere from 10 days to two weeks behind schedule. That is because of the heavy rainfall in June and the hail storms so far in July. This week many of his melons were bruised from quarter-sized hail.
“Last night the lightning started and I going, what the heck? What's that? Then hail came and goes. So they just pop up out of nowhere, out of thin air to speak and nerve wracking,” Hirakata said.
Hirakata estimates 15-25% of the planted melons were damaged from the hail storm this week. But Hirakata is not worried.
Hail damage is not new for Hirakata Farms. Last year they experienced a massive hail storm that ruined their crop in one area.
“Almost every year I'd say. Last year we lost 30% of our crop to a late summer hailstorm and it just killed everything, so, the fruit was almost ready to pick and so we had no chance of recovery,” Hirakata said.
Last year's hail storm happened at the end of the harvesting season, which affected the number of melons Hirakata could sell to grocery stores.
When asked about prevention or protection from weather, Hirakata said there is not much he can do.
“What we can do is if we know it's going to rain a lot, we'll make a head ditch so the water doesn't flow down the field and we can divert the water a little. But other than that there's not much we can do about severe weather. Just pray it doesn't get too severe,” Hirakata said.
Despite the damages from over the last two growing seasons, Hirakata said he does not farm for the insurance.
“We'll be lucky to get our seed cost back. It's not, you know, we don't farm for insurance. So we farm to grow and produce. So it will get us something back, but it won't make up for the loss and the crop,” Hirakata said.
Hirikata says it's early on in the summer and the crops are growing well. He expects the melons will be harvested by early August. Melons for Hirakata farms will be available than in most big grocery stores across Colorado.
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