I wrote yesterday about how technology is making farming more productive. But despite these advances, farmers are still very exposed to the vagaries of the weather.

According to the Yakima Herald-Republic (YHR), “Heat stress, water shortages and other factors likely will combine to make the 2015 apple crop smaller than last year’s record-setter.” More apple growers are using shade cloths to try to protect their trees from sun and hail damage:

Normally, growers use sprinklers mounted high above the trees to cool fruit, but during this year’s water rationing, they often needed all the water they could get for the tree roots. Growers also spray a white, clay-like substance on apples that acts as sunscreen. Shade cloths are an expensive solution. No less than 20 employees spent a week stretching shade over 7 acres at Carpenter Farms, said foreman Felipe Avalos. McDougall and Sons, a Wenatchee company with orchards in Grant County, spent $11,000 shading apples this year, said co-president Scott McDougall.

Heat and drought may have tipped the scales, but many growers have wanted to experiment with shade cloths anyway. Proposed rules over irrigation water sanitation coming from the federal Food and Drug Administration may limit the use of overhead sprinklers in the future.

[UPDATE 8/12: Here’s an interesting technology and the weather story. WSU is testing “an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that could provide a safer, less expensive means to blow rainwater off cherry orchards to avoid fruit losses.”]

Whether or not growers have a good year is important for the state. The total value of agricultural products sold in Washington in 2012 was over $9 billion. A 2014 economic impact study of the Washington apple industry found that, from fall 2012 to summer 2013, total output generated (including direct, indirect, and induced business activity) was $7.5 billion.

Meanwhile, Jon Talton’s latest column in the Seattle Times is about Eastern Washington’s economy:

Washington east of the Cascades is a big territory, but one thing its distinctive parts have in common is a very different economic trajectory than the one traveled in the Seattle area. . . .

Diversification is helping balance Eastern Washington’s historical dependence on resources and commodity crops. . . .

This is a broad-brush summary, but people in the Puget Sound area need to pay attention to Inland Washington.

Its growers are intimately linked to our ports and logistics connections, such as highways and rail need improving.

Indeed, both Talton and the YHR mention the high costs that the West Coast ports slowdown earlier this year imposed on apple growers. As the economic impact study noted,

The best opportunities for the Washington apple industry to find outlets for its increased production lie in export markets where populations and per capita incomes are still growing rapidly.

Easy access to and through our ports are important for growers — and for the state economy.