NAMPA, Idaho — 2026 has been a challenging year for agriculture in Idaho. Berry farmers are now dealing with the impacts of volatile temperatures and one of the warmest winters ever recorded.
Local farmers like Fred Schreffler have farmed in Idaho for over three decades and the last few months are leaving an impact on his field. He owns The Berry Ranch in Nampa and his strawberries are struggling as over half of his field hasn't produced any crop.
“In the early crop we’ve probably got 30% of what we should have had and that's unfortunately a bigger portion of our strawberry sales,” said Schreffler.
Along with the late season freeze, warm temperatures earlier in the season have lead to other crops like raspberries ripening a month earlier than they should.
See how farmers are handling the tough weather year:
Locals like Charis Meyers bring their kids every year to pick strawberries but this year were unable to. “We love going to get strawberries since the kids were little, we would go out. Like my mom did, we would skip a day of school and go and pick strawberries.” She told me she's sad there were no strawberries to pick this time around but understands the struggle that many Idaho farmers are facing this year.
Schreffler is hoping his second round of strawberry crops will be more fruitful but he also has to worry about water. Idaho is under drought conditions in every county and has to save for pumpkins and sweet corn later in the year.
“Those are full season crops. They need water up through middle of September anyway,” he said.
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