West Michigan orchard turns to wind turbines to shield fruit crops from spring freezes
FENNVILLE, Mich. — Every day farmers are at the mercy of Mother Nature, and sometimes she can throw a curve ball that can impact their products — and in turn — their revenue.
That’s why Crane Orchards in Fennville installed wind turbines to act as a safeguard when temperatures drop.
A wind turbine spins over Crane Orchards to help mix warmer air from higher altitudes down to the surface. (Collin Rogers/WWMT)
“It goes around 360 degrees,” Trevor Crane, co-owner of Crane Orchards, said. “So it rotates, the prop rotates, and it covers about 10 to 15 acres.”
The turbines help mix warmer air from higher altitudes down to the surface.
Crane says these fans help to warm surface temperatures and prevent their crops from being damaged.
“If you can keep the temperature around 30 to 31 degrees, that’s a pretty safe zone,” Crane said. “Most farmers would say, ‘that’s okay, there’s not much damage going on.’ Once you start getting down to 26 or 27 degrees and below, these wind turbines can definitely help with that two to five degrees.”
Just a few degrees may not sound like much to most people, but it makes all the difference for farmers.
That’s why Crane says these turbines are worth the cost.
“I think it works for us very well, just as a safety net, because it really is the only safety net we have,” Crane said. “Do they cost money? Yes, but there’s also the cost of not having a crop.”
This technology has been around since the 1980s, but it wasn’t until a disastrous late season freeze that had many Michigan farmers thinking about installing these fans.
“They really started kicking into gear, in my opinion, around 2012,” Crane explained. “That’s when everybody lost everything. I think people began to think, maybe this wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a safeguard with these.”
It was the following year that Crane Orchards installed two turbines, and after seeing the positive impact they had on their fruit crops, they added four more.
They are there not only to protect their crop, but also give people the best experience possible at the orchard.
“Our customers and the people we see every year that enjoy this U-Pick was another huge reason, absolutely a huge reason that we put in these wind turbines,” Crane said.
When fewer crops are damaged, there is more fruit for people to pick, and that is the ultimate goal.
More information about Crane Orchards can be found on their website.