By KRWG News
Las Cruces – Pecan farmers in southern New Mexico are behind schedule when it comes to harvesting this year's crop, and Mother Nature is to blame.
Wet weather had muddied fields, keeping the heavy, nut harvesting machinery from moving through orchards.
Don Archer farms about 150 acres of pecans in the Hatch area. He has finished about half of his harvesting, but he acknowledges the weather has cost him about three weeks of work.
Las Cruces pecan grower and buyer Phillip Arnold says precipitation has been a problem for him too. His family's orchards received about 3 inches of rain and snow since late November.
Arnold says growers are frustrated. Had the weather cooperated, he says about 90 percent of the harvest would have been done by now.
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Information from: Las Cruces Sun-News, http://www.lcsun-news.com
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press