The planting season is way behind schedule in the U.S. state of Idaho; at least two to three weeks according to some farmers.  The weather has been too cold, and too wet.  Here in eastern Idaho the Snake and Portneuf rivers are flooding, making it worse.

The flooding Portneuf is hitting farmers in Inkom: “We’ll lose about 4 to 500 ton of hay and probably, I don’t know how much barley, 150 ton of barley. The problem is there’s still a lot of snow to come down, and I think it’s probably gonna be in July or August before we can get in here, and it’s gonna be to late to crop.”-Jim Guthrie, Inkom farmer

The cold is keeping seeds from sprouting: “The cold weather has probably been as much of a delay as the moisture has been. My sugar beets have been in the ground three weeks and they haven’t sprouted yet. With the cold weather we’ve been having, maybe it’s a good thing they haven’t.”-Jim Tiede, American Falls farmer

Potatoes need relatively dry soil to be planted, and they need a hot summer to help them grow big.  Farmers are worried this summer might not be hot enough, or long enough.  Add to that a little worm that likes to eat spuds: “It’s an extremely difficult pest to get rid of.  The thing can last in the soil for decades, and so the process that you go through to get rid of it is extremely long.”-Larry Hawkins, U.S. Department of Agriculture

Hawkins is talking about a microscopic bug that has seen $36 million spent over five years, trying to get rid of it.  It’s shown up in several eastern Idaho potato fields this year.  The nematodes are not native to Idaho; they first showed up in Bingham county in 2006.  They’re not dangerous to people, but can reduce potato yields by 80%.