Easter weekend freeze devastates southeastern crops
Easter weekend freeze devastates southeastern crops
An Easter weekend freeze devastated fruit crops from Georgia to West Virginia. There may be damage farther north, but time will probably show that growers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York state didn't sustain major crop damage.
Peach grower Cline Cash of Cash Farms Inc. in Cowpens, SC, told The Produce News April 11 that for several hours on the morning of April 7, the temperature was 24 degrees at his 100-acre peach farm. "It was pretty much a 100 percent loss. We'll wait until next year and hope for better weather."
Mr. Cash said that his peach trees were past petal fall, so they were especially vulnerable to freeze. He said that he had not talked to all of his neighbors about their freeze damage, but he added, "There are not that many growers left in my area."
Other bad experiences caused Cowpens growers to leave peaches, he said: weather "and real estate values."
"It's not the first time and it won't be the last," he said. "This is not the first time we were hit this hard."
Mr. Cash said that the first freeze in his memory to reach these proportions was in 1955. The next such freeze came in the late 1960s, followed by freezes in 1982, 1990 and 1996.
Baxley, GA, blueberry grower Allen Miles, who owns Miles Sunbelt Blueberry Corp., said that the freeze caused "a 100 percent loss. In southeast Georgia, there are very few Rabbit Eye blueberries."
Mr. Miles said that the damage estimate for Georgia blueberries lost in this freeze is $45 million to $60 million. "We pack our own fruit and fruit for several other growers. Our volume will be almost nothing. Last year our shed packed 2 million flats. We'll be lucky to do 150,000 this year."
He said that there would be some high bush blueberries harvested this spring because high bush varieties have frost protection on many acres.
Miles Sunbelt grows about 45 acres of high bush varieties, which were protected by overhead irrigation. "We lost probably 30-35 percent of that," although high bush blueberries represent only 15-18 percent of his total blueberry production.
The bottom line is that Miles Sunbelt may have about 5 percent of its blueberry crop in 2007. This will be true if that high bush acreage "does not have a lot of cold damage and we can sell the fruit. Time will tell if it is scarred or damaged and we can or can't sell it."
Mr. Miles, who started growing blueberries in 1992, said, "I've not seen anything like this before. Not on this level. The worst we've had 'til now was in '93. That was pretty bad. Then we lost 30-40 percent of a crop."
Offering no better Georgia blueberry news was Gary Pangburn of Alma, GA, who said on April 11, "We lost pretty much 100 percent of all our Rabbit Eyes for Allen Blueberry Farms," which he owns with his brother. They farm 185 acres of blueberries.
Of his neighbors, Mr. Pangburn added, "I don't think others fared better. This is pretty well what you will find. When I say 100 percent, there could be a variance of 5 percent. There were a few that had a chance of making it." But in those varieties, "the seeds in the berries may continue to die. We have a minimum of 95 percent loss, and for the 5 percent it would not be feasible to run the [packing] machine or pick."
Alma is in Bacon County, 100 miles north of Jacksonville, FL. Mr. Pangburn said that Bacon County temperatures were around 28 degrees. In Ware County, Georgia, which also grows blueberries, temperatures fell to 22. Mr. Pangburn said that overhead irrigation saved 95 percent of his high bush blueberries, but they represent "a very small part - not even a tenth" - of his total blueberry production. "I can speak for most every one of the Rabbit Eye growers that we had one of the best crops started we had ever had."
Mr. Pangburn started growing Georgia blueberries in 1984. Now, he said, "This is the first year since I was involved, or heard anyone say, the season was a complete disaster."
Keystone Fruit Marketing Inc. markets peaches and apples grown along the Eastern Seaboard. Kurt Schweitzer, co-owner of the Greencastle, PA-based firm, said April 11 that the South Carolina peach crop experienced "anything from a total kill to 20-25 percent of a crop [surviving], depending on the location of orchards. It's a sad story - about as bad as we've seen in awhile."
Mr. Schweitzer is expecting Keystone to market 50-60 percent of its normal Georgia peach crop, but he added, "We'll see how it plays out."
Keystone has two growers on the western part of Georgia's peach-growing district that are expected to still ship at least 400,000 boxes of peaches this spring. Shipping from about May 21 onward "looks good. So far, so good there."
Keystone grows peaches in Ft. Valley, GA, where there will be a peach crop, albeit smaller than normal. Mr. Schweitzer is unsure of the value of that early estimation.
Mr. Schweitzer said that peach trees in Pennsylvania and West Virginia might have been too immature in seasonal fruit development to suffer any or much damage. In these areas, trees were not in bloom. From central Virginia southward, peach trees "were in full bloom or petal fall."
Mr. Schweitzer said, "The apple situation is also a mixed bag. Southern Virginia and south has varying degrees of damage. North Carolina was hurt badly in most varieties except Romes. In central Virginia to the north, there was some damage to Gala and some Red Delicious, and maybe Fuji, but farther north there was less damage."
A news report on April 10 indicated that freezing weather appears to have destroyed this year's apple harvest in Henderson County, NC.
Apple damage in Pennsylvania is unclear, but "apples there were not even in tight cluster. They will have no bloom until late May. We expect a good crop of apples in the Northeast. There is still a crop of apples, but we still have a long way to go," said Mr. Schweitzer.
John Ed Smith, commercial blueberry area Extension agent for Bacon County, GA, whose office is in Alma, said that southeastern Georgia growers were 80-100 percent wiped out of blueberry production.
"We've never seen it that bad before," he said. "What is left won't be economical to pick."
Bacon County has about 3,500 to 4,000 acres of blueberry production, while southeastern Georgia as a whole has more than 10,000 acres of commercial blueberries.
Mr. Smith said that the worst cold for growers was primarily the hours between midnight and dawn on Easter Sunday, when temperatures ranged between 26.8 and 29 degrees.
Mr. Smith said April 11 that it is too early to know, but the Georgia pecan crop may be hurt.
Not all the industry news from Georgia is bad, however.
Michael Hively of Bland Family Farms in Vidalia, GA, said April 10 that the cold might create some shipping gaps for Vidalia onion growers, who may run later in the season. This could actually benefit the marketing side of the business.
Bland Farms began packing April 9 and started shipping a day later. Mr. Hively said, "The onions are looking really good to start off with. From what I see, I like the quality. The cold weather might create a bit of a gap" for the Vidalia deal as a whole.
Bland Farms is harvesting almost 30,000 bushels of onions a day and shipping 20,000, so Mr. Hively said his company will ship steadily. Bland Farms owner Delbert Bland added, "We don't feel like there is an immediate threat at all." The Easter cold weather might slow the maturity of some young onion sets, "especially on the later fields. But this could be good. It spreads the deal out and takes the pressure off" shippers to hurriedly move the crop. "I am pretty excited about this crop. The market is good, and the crop is of very good quality."
Becky Walton, director of public information for the South Carolina Department of Agriculture in Colombia, SC, told The Produce News April 10 that the freeze damage "is sickening. Real sickening." But she said she is awaiting crop damage assessment results before making detailed comments. On April 9, her office sent a press release indicating that "USDA Farm Service Agency's county emergency boards are currently in the process of assessing agricultural damage at the local level. The findings will be sent directly to the USDA in Washington in the form of flash reports within the next few days. More detailed damage assessment reports will be developed within the next few weeks, and those reports will be sent to Gov. Mark Sanford. The governor's office then requests a disaster declaration from the secretary of agriculture, if warranted, and the secretary then approves or declines the request."
Easter in New Jersey was statistically colder than the previous Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's Day, according to Bob von Rohr, director of marketing and customer relations for Sunny Valley International Inc., based in Glassboro, NJ. Still, he said April 9 that the cold over southern New Jersey fields did not go below freezing.
"It was cold, but there was no immediate damage for blueberries or peaches. Time will show if the cold will slow the maturity of those crops," he said.
Peach grower Cline Cash of Cash Farms Inc. in Cowpens, SC, told The Produce News April 11 that for several hours on the morning of April 7, the temperature was 24 degrees at his 100-acre peach farm. "It was pretty much a 100 percent loss. We'll wait until next year and hope for better weather."
Mr. Cash said that his peach trees were past petal fall, so they were especially vulnerable to freeze. He said that he had not talked to all of his neighbors about their freeze damage, but he added, "There are not that many growers left in my area."
Other bad experiences caused Cowpens growers to leave peaches, he said: weather "and real estate values."
"It's not the first time and it won't be the last," he said. "This is not the first time we were hit this hard."
Mr. Cash said that the first freeze in his memory to reach these proportions was in 1955. The next such freeze came in the late 1960s, followed by freezes in 1982, 1990 and 1996.
Baxley, GA, blueberry grower Allen Miles, who owns Miles Sunbelt Blueberry Corp., said that the freeze caused "a 100 percent loss. In southeast Georgia, there are very few Rabbit Eye blueberries."
Mr. Miles said that the damage estimate for Georgia blueberries lost in this freeze is $45 million to $60 million. "We pack our own fruit and fruit for several other growers. Our volume will be almost nothing. Last year our shed packed 2 million flats. We'll be lucky to do 150,000 this year."
He said that there would be some high bush blueberries harvested this spring because high bush varieties have frost protection on many acres.
Miles Sunbelt grows about 45 acres of high bush varieties, which were protected by overhead irrigation. "We lost probably 30-35 percent of that," although high bush blueberries represent only 15-18 percent of his total blueberry production.
The bottom line is that Miles Sunbelt may have about 5 percent of its blueberry crop in 2007. This will be true if that high bush acreage "does not have a lot of cold damage and we can sell the fruit. Time will tell if it is scarred or damaged and we can or can't sell it."
Mr. Miles, who started growing blueberries in 1992, said, "I've not seen anything like this before. Not on this level. The worst we've had 'til now was in '93. That was pretty bad. Then we lost 30-40 percent of a crop."
Offering no better Georgia blueberry news was Gary Pangburn of Alma, GA, who said on April 11, "We lost pretty much 100 percent of all our Rabbit Eyes for Allen Blueberry Farms," which he owns with his brother. They farm 185 acres of blueberries.
Of his neighbors, Mr. Pangburn added, "I don't think others fared better. This is pretty well what you will find. When I say 100 percent, there could be a variance of 5 percent. There were a few that had a chance of making it." But in those varieties, "the seeds in the berries may continue to die. We have a minimum of 95 percent loss, and for the 5 percent it would not be feasible to run the [packing] machine or pick."
Alma is in Bacon County, 100 miles north of Jacksonville, FL. Mr. Pangburn said that Bacon County temperatures were around 28 degrees. In Ware County, Georgia, which also grows blueberries, temperatures fell to 22. Mr. Pangburn said that overhead irrigation saved 95 percent of his high bush blueberries, but they represent "a very small part - not even a tenth" - of his total blueberry production. "I can speak for most every one of the Rabbit Eye growers that we had one of the best crops started we had ever had."
Mr. Pangburn started growing Georgia blueberries in 1984. Now, he said, "This is the first year since I was involved, or heard anyone say, the season was a complete disaster."
Keystone Fruit Marketing Inc. markets peaches and apples grown along the Eastern Seaboard. Kurt Schweitzer, co-owner of the Greencastle, PA-based firm, said April 11 that the South Carolina peach crop experienced "anything from a total kill to 20-25 percent of a crop [surviving], depending on the location of orchards. It's a sad story - about as bad as we've seen in awhile."
Mr. Schweitzer is expecting Keystone to market 50-60 percent of its normal Georgia peach crop, but he added, "We'll see how it plays out."
Keystone has two growers on the western part of Georgia's peach-growing district that are expected to still ship at least 400,000 boxes of peaches this spring. Shipping from about May 21 onward "looks good. So far, so good there."
Keystone grows peaches in Ft. Valley, GA, where there will be a peach crop, albeit smaller than normal. Mr. Schweitzer is unsure of the value of that early estimation.
Mr. Schweitzer said that peach trees in Pennsylvania and West Virginia might have been too immature in seasonal fruit development to suffer any or much damage. In these areas, trees were not in bloom. From central Virginia southward, peach trees "were in full bloom or petal fall."
Mr. Schweitzer said, "The apple situation is also a mixed bag. Southern Virginia and south has varying degrees of damage. North Carolina was hurt badly in most varieties except Romes. In central Virginia to the north, there was some damage to Gala and some Red Delicious, and maybe Fuji, but farther north there was less damage."
A news report on April 10 indicated that freezing weather appears to have destroyed this year's apple harvest in Henderson County, NC.
Apple damage in Pennsylvania is unclear, but "apples there were not even in tight cluster. They will have no bloom until late May. We expect a good crop of apples in the Northeast. There is still a crop of apples, but we still have a long way to go," said Mr. Schweitzer.
John Ed Smith, commercial blueberry area Extension agent for Bacon County, GA, whose office is in Alma, said that southeastern Georgia growers were 80-100 percent wiped out of blueberry production.
"We've never seen it that bad before," he said. "What is left won't be economical to pick."
Bacon County has about 3,500 to 4,000 acres of blueberry production, while southeastern Georgia as a whole has more than 10,000 acres of commercial blueberries.
Mr. Smith said that the worst cold for growers was primarily the hours between midnight and dawn on Easter Sunday, when temperatures ranged between 26.8 and 29 degrees.
Mr. Smith said April 11 that it is too early to know, but the Georgia pecan crop may be hurt.
Not all the industry news from Georgia is bad, however.
Michael Hively of Bland Family Farms in Vidalia, GA, said April 10 that the cold might create some shipping gaps for Vidalia onion growers, who may run later in the season. This could actually benefit the marketing side of the business.
Bland Farms began packing April 9 and started shipping a day later. Mr. Hively said, "The onions are looking really good to start off with. From what I see, I like the quality. The cold weather might create a bit of a gap" for the Vidalia deal as a whole.
Bland Farms is harvesting almost 30,000 bushels of onions a day and shipping 20,000, so Mr. Hively said his company will ship steadily. Bland Farms owner Delbert Bland added, "We don't feel like there is an immediate threat at all." The Easter cold weather might slow the maturity of some young onion sets, "especially on the later fields. But this could be good. It spreads the deal out and takes the pressure off" shippers to hurriedly move the crop. "I am pretty excited about this crop. The market is good, and the crop is of very good quality."
Becky Walton, director of public information for the South Carolina Department of Agriculture in Colombia, SC, told The Produce News April 10 that the freeze damage "is sickening. Real sickening." But she said she is awaiting crop damage assessment results before making detailed comments. On April 9, her office sent a press release indicating that "USDA Farm Service Agency's county emergency boards are currently in the process of assessing agricultural damage at the local level. The findings will be sent directly to the USDA in Washington in the form of flash reports within the next few days. More detailed damage assessment reports will be developed within the next few weeks, and those reports will be sent to Gov. Mark Sanford. The governor's office then requests a disaster declaration from the secretary of agriculture, if warranted, and the secretary then approves or declines the request."
Easter in New Jersey was statistically colder than the previous Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's Day, according to Bob von Rohr, director of marketing and customer relations for Sunny Valley International Inc., based in Glassboro, NJ. Still, he said April 9 that the cold over southern New Jersey fields did not go below freezing.
"It was cold, but there was no immediate damage for blueberries or peaches. Time will show if the cold will slow the maturity of those crops," he said.
