WATERLOO (AP) — Some Iowa growers say heavy rains haven’t cut into their pumpkin crop.
Tammy Stotts, marketing specialist with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, said growers she has spoken with all have plenty of pumpkins. She said officials aren’t hearing “anything negative.”
“It may not be the biggest crop ever, but it looks like a good crop,” Stotts said. “I’m not foreseeing a shortage of pumpkins.”
Rains have caused rot for pumpkin farmers elsewhere in the United States, including in Illinois, the top-producing state for pumpkins.
Deb Christopher of Rogers Market in rural Cedar Falls said the rains didn’t negatively affect their crop.
“We have sandy soil, so we love rain,” Christopher said. “Actually, the weather was perfect for us — it rained at the right times.”
Dave Meyers, who owns Heartland Farms in Waterloo, said his pumpkin crop is “maybe a little above” average. He has gotten calls about purchases from as far away as Colorado, he said.
“We’ve been more fortunate in northeast Iowa, and I think we’re in better shape than the Upper Midwest in general,” Meyers said.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2012 ag census, there were 381 farms in Iowa growing pumpkins on 1,175 acres.