Idaho hop harvest almost in

Parma—At Central Cove Hop Farm in Canyon County vines are cut and hauled away…. According to the National Ag Stats, Idaho’s hop crop is the biggest in history, with another thousand acres planted in 2020.

“We started in Central Cove in 2016, we started that year with 60 acres, said Colbie Libsack, of Central Cove Hop. We had just two blends at that time now 2020 we have 585 acres and six different varieties of hops.”

The past five weeks crews have worked sun-up to sundown to get the crop in. JC Watson company, runs and operates the hop farm, and this crop will end up in craft beer, and its a money maker:

“We started the hop operation to try and diversify off the row crops and its just another side of the business that we wanted to expand,” said Libsack.

Idaho’s hop production totaled more than 1.7 million pounds; And is ranked 2nd in the nation climbing for the ninth straight year.

“The dry down process, we’re trying to dry this hop right here, you want these hops at nine and a half percent,” added Libsack.

The new drying, sorting, and packing facility is State of the Art, making Central Cove a player in one of Idaho’s promising, new power crops. Idaho hop acreage totaled a record 8,400 last year, that's up another thousand acres in 2020, while yields last year averaged 2000-34 pounds per acre, up 50 more pounds per acre this year.