Hurricane

USDA Launches New Round of Disaster Aid: What Producers Need to Know to Sign Up

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 17:35:12 GMT

USDA is launching the next phase of its Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) , aimed at farmers who suffered losses from natural disasters in 2023 and 2024 . This new round — Stage 2 — was unveiled on Monday and is expected to be significantly more complex than earlier programs and will likely include a surge in enrollment from specialty crop growers.

Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation Richard Fordyce says this latest stage fills major gaps for producers who either lacked crop insurance altogether or whose losses didn’t quite trigger an indemnity payment. He also says this round of disaster aid is complex, and there are a few things producers can do in advance to make the sign-up process a little easier.

Stage 2 Designed for “Shallow Losses” and Quality Loss

Fordyce explains the scope of eligible disasters is much wider than many producers realize.

He says the qualifying events including everything from drought and wildfires to a derecho. He adds that the program is specifically geared toward losses that fell through the cracks of traditional programs.

“This supplemental disaster relief program is going to assist producers that either did not have crop insurance or their crop insurance didn’t trigger an indemnity, but it was close,” he says. “We call those shallow losses. And there’s also a quality loss component we haven’t really been able to address in previous programs.”

Fordyce says with this stage being more complex, there are two things he wants producers to know:

“I think I think number one, if you are in an area that had a weather disaster in 2023 and 2024, if you’re a producer, you think back, did I have a severe weather event, right? Hurricane, wildfire, derecho, freeze, drought, whatever, and it impacted my crop, then you’re probably eligible,” says Fordyce. “So just think back to 23 and 24. And then, contact that local FSA county office, go to the website. There’s resources on that website as well, and then just be thinking about documentation that could prove that loss. And I mean, I think depending on the crop, depending on the geography, you know, that documentation’s gonna be different.”

Specialty Crops Expected to Be a Major Share of Applicants

What crops will be covered? Fordyce emphasizes many specialty crop operations will find Stage 2 particularly valuable.

“What we think will be crops that will probably have a higher subscription rate through this program are gonna be specialty crops. So it’ll be again what you think of as conventional specialty crops, you know, grapes, so it’s trees, vines, bushes would be you know, probably more more of those crops that would be included,” he says.

He notes that Stage 1 was largely focused on crops with well-established crop insurance data streams, such as major row crops.

“This one’s going to be harder, more complicated, because the data isn’t as uniform and the crop mix is so diverse,” he says.

Producers MUST Enroll in Person, Fordyce Urges Them to Prepare Now

One of the biggest changes in Stage 2 is how growers must apply. Unlike Stage 1, USDA is not mailing pre-filled applications. Producers must go to their FSA county office and work through the application with staff.

Fordyce says with this round being more complicated, preparation is key, but USDA has created a clear and concise checklist to help .

“We’re asking folks to call the local county office to set up an appointment,” he says. “We want to use the producer’s time in the best way we can. This is not something where you just walk in and hope to get it done quickly. There are documents we need, and the more a producer gets ahead of that, the smoother the process will be.”

USDA has published a detailed checklist at FSA.usda.gov/SDRP , and Fordyce encourages producers not to wait.

“It’s a list of documents you really should start getting your hands on, and if you don’t have documentation for something, the checklist also lays out acceptable ways you can substantiate the loss,” he says. “Depending on the crop and the geography, what counts as documentation is going to be different. That’s why we want folks to look at it now, not when they’re sitting in the county office.”

He stresses early preparation will matter because demand will be high.

“This one’s more complicated than Stage 1, no question, and it’s going to take more work from producers and from our county offices,” he says.

Billions Already Distributed And Billions More to Come

SDRP Stage 2 is part of the $30 billion disaster and economic assistance package Congress authorized.

Fordyce explains: “SDRP Stage 2 is part of the $30 billion Congress appropriated back in December. The first $10 billion was the economic aid program, then $6 billion for SDRP Stage 1. When we wrap up SDRP Stage 2, we will have administered all $30 billion in disaster and economic relief.”

What Farmers Need to Know

1. You must enroll in person at your FSA county office.

No prefilled applications will be mailed.
Call ahead to schedule an appointment.
Expect longer processing due to program complexity.

2. Stage 2 covers 2023 through 2024 weather-related losses.

Includes “too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry, too windy” and other major events.
Eligibility includes shallow losses and quality losses.

3. Specialty crops likely benefit most.

Trees, vines, bushes, grapes and other specialty crops are expected to represent the majority of applicants.

4. Prepare documents in advance.

Use the SDRP checklist at FSA.usda.gov/SDRP .
Documentation varies by crop and region.

Market Loss Payments Still Being Debated, Prices at Harvest Are a Concern

Producers are still asking about potential market loss payments tied to tariff impacts and trade disruptions. While some hope an announcement will come before year-end, Fordyce cautions nothing is final.

“We’re having conversations almost daily with the Secretary’s office, the chief economist’s office, the White House,” he says. “When and if we do something, we want it to be well informed through the data we have. We want it to reflect where we are today, but also, it has to reflect where we were because many producers sold crops at harvest when prices were low. We know that.”

He stresses any decision must accurately reflect the full picture.

“There’s nothing decided yet, no imminent announcement I’m aware of, but the points producers are raising are the same ones we’re discussing internally,” Fordyce says.

Cotton Farmers and Other Struggling Commodities Are Part of the Conversation

Fordyce says USDA is closely tracking severe distress in cotton country.

“There are multiple commodities that are part of the conversation,” he says. “China is the big name because of soybean and sorghum exports, but there are other factors affecting other commodities too. When we make a decision, it’s going to be informed, it’s going to be representative of where we are, and it’s going to rely on the data we have access to.”

Borrower Limits Remain a Roadblock

As lenders warn of widespread stress, many producers want USDA to raise loan limits for beginning farmers and other borrowers. Fordyce says USDA cannot make that change without congressional action.

“Loan limits are statutory,” he explains. “We had a significant increase in 2018, but prices, land values and equipment costs have all shifted since then. We have champions in Congress who understand the inadequacies of our loan limits, and they want to increase them. We’ll see where that goes.”

USDA Leadership Knows the Stakes

Fordyce says USDA leaders understand, personally, the financial strain farmers face.

“My first operating loan was in 1983 at about 18% interest,” he says. “And I still wanted to farm. There are people up and down the hallways of USDA leadership who have farmed, who are farming or who have direct ties to a farm. There’s absolutely a 100% understanding of what’s happening both broadly and commodity by commodity, region by region.”

AgriTalk’s Chip Flory also talked to Farm CPA Paul Nieffer about the latest round of disaster aid. You can listen to that conversation as he outlines what farmers need to know.

Hurricane Helene: One Year Later

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 17:35:22 GMT

Chris White is 46 years old. For more than half of that time, he’s been a blueberry farmer in his hometown of Baxley, Ga. He’s seen a lot, both as a farmer and also as a resident in southeast Georgia, an area of the country that’s not quite hurricane ground zero but that can certainly find itself adjacent to the many tropical storms and hurricanes that make landfall each year.

But he’d never seen anything like what happened to his community the night of Sept. 26, 2024.

Located in the southeastern part of the state, Baxley was one of the many towns that took a direct hit from Hurricane Helene. Overnight, the hurricane pummeled the area with 100-plus mph wind gusts and rainfall that triggered flooding, resulting in 37 deaths in the state.

When White and his fellow farmers awoke the next morning, they were unprepared for what they saw.

One of the farms that makes up Appling Blueberry Farms had sat ripe with mature blueberry bushes just the day before. Now, it was decimated – the entire blueberry canopy flattened to the ground. Surrounded by debris, he recalls having to walk 3 miles on foot to get to his equipment shed.

“I drove the tractor back here to the field and when I pulled to the road and saw it, I just turned around and didn’t come back for six days,” White says.

“Just imagine the entire thing on the ground. “It was devastating,” he adds.

Down the road in the neighboring city of Alma, Randy Miller spent the morning with the same ache in his gut. Looking out on his family’s timber operation, Miller saw his 1,400 acres of timberland in shambles.

“We lost 300 acres of timber in the 30 to 40-year range,” he says.

Miller thought of his timber acres largely as his 401k — a savings he could grow to maturity and then harvest as a security blanket for retirement.

“I’m 64 years old, and that was basically my lifetime’s marketable timber that was gone,” he says.

Randy Miller had invested time and energy in growing a pinewood plantation that he hoped to market at maturity. Hurricane Helene’s 100-plus mph winds decimated 300 acres of his trees.

(Randy Miller)

The Clean-Up

While White remained in denial about his crop’s demise, Miller didn’t have the time. Even felled timber has a window where harvest remains possible, but time is critical. He started calling his timber cutting contacts, but he was already behind. Other landowners had called before him.

“It took months before they could get to us,” Miller says.

“Before the Hurricane, we sold 60 acres of timber worth roughly $4,000 per acre,” he says. “After it, we picked up 150 acres and got a check for $47,000.

“Some people got nothing, so we were lucky that we’d gotten $4 a ton for ours, which is basically nothing,” he adds.

In Baxley, White finally started ripping out his destroyed blueberry bushes. In order to plant more, he had to start from scratch and rebuild the field infrastructure, such as bark mounds and drip lines.

But then he couldn’t find plants.

“We called all over the U.S. to find plants,” he recalls. “We had plants come from Oregon and Florida. We really had to struggle to get them.”

Appling Blueberry Farms planted the last of its replacement bushes in February, which means that the new crop could not yield fruit this year. Grower Chris White will be able to harvest berries from the farm in the 2026 growing year.

(America’s Conservation Ag Movement)

White’s last new plant went into the ground in February. He says he’s not sure that any of that quick rebuild would have been possible without emergency assistance from USDA.

“The FSA Tree Assistance Program (TAP) was a very big blessing to put them back,” he says. “They paid an amount for the soil preparation and then so much per plant for the replant.

“It definitely wasn’t something that would bring you debt-free on it, but it was something that wouldn’t put you in a real financial bind,” he adds.

Planning for the Future

The devastation left in Helene’s wake wasn’t just plant loss for many farmers. The rushing water from torrential rain combined with the hurricane-force winds blew critical topsoil, sending it into nearby fields, ditches and roadways.

Part of the recovery for growers like White was moving and replacing dirt.

“We hauled in about 60 dump truck loads of dirt and put the soil back where it had eroded,” he recalls.

He wasn’t the only one. Neal Boatright, a fourth-generation farmer who grows more than 6,000 acres of cotton, peanuts and blueberries at scale, also had to get to work relocating soil on his farm. He noticed a difference in erosion in his no-till acreage and the areas where he harvest-tills crops such as peanuts.

“We brought it back from the lower side of the fields and put back and leveled and tried to fix it,” he says. “We have conventional tillage areas that wash worse.”

Growers such as White, Miller and Boatright have seen the weather changing around them. While they say they’d never seen a hurricane or tropical storm hit their region with such devastation as Helene did, they aren’t sure it is going to be the last one.

Their rebuilding plans are a combination of put-back and pre-planning for mitigation of future potential weather catastrophes.

In his rebuild, White worked to secure grants that would allow him to experiment with cover crops in between his blueberry rows. The farm that was lost totally last year now has a diverse cover crop mixture locking his soil in place.

Appling Blueberry Farms uses a diverse mixture of cover crops in between blueberry rows to protect soil from erosion. After the first year, grower Chris White says he sees a reduction in nematode and weed pressure due to the cover crop.

(America’s Conservation Ag Movement)

At one point in the growing season, his cover crop mixture stood 6 feet tall, towering above his blueberry bushes. In addition to protecting the soil, White says the cover crop is yielding other benefits as well.

“It dries the middle out a lot quicker because you have so much sucking the rain and that helps a bunch,” he says. “Because we planted several different plants, our nematode pressure has been way down and the weed pressure too.

“We’ll keep a cover crop here twice a year now, one in the summer and one in the winter,” he adds.

Boatright has been cover cropping his land and sees the benefits in preventing erosion as well as building organic matter in the soil.

“It not only saves erosion by that cover crop growing, it helps retain some nutrients for the next year, builds up organic matter and helps with suppressing weed pressure,” he says. “All that added together makes a good cover crop worthwhile.”

Lasting Impact

While growers and landowners have spent this past year cleaning up and putting their land and assets back together, many worry that the devastation of Hurricane Helen may have generational impact.

Kevin Eason didn’t have to destroy many of his blueberry plants, but even though they survived, the yields this year seem to be suffering.

“What we’ve come to realize is some fields that we didn’t think were damaged, production was down significantly,” he says. “What’s going to happen a year from now, two years from now, three years from now?

“What are going to be the lingering effects of what happened with the Hurricane?”

As he drives down the road on his land and in his community, Boatright can still see areas that harken back to the immediate aftermath of the storm a year ago.

“There was probably more wind damage from that one storm than all the wind damage I’ve ever seen in my whole life added together in this area,” he says. “This was devastating to the timber industry and will have years of effects.”

Miller is keenly aware of the generational impact that his timber losses will have for his family.

“It’s just a sickening feeling because you have totally lost your hearts, not just in the pocketbook,” he says. “I have a kid, and he has two kids that are coming up, and we want to turn it over to them in good shape.

“It’s not a one-year quick fix.

“This is going to take years,” he says. “Probably five years from now, we’ll still be able to ride through and see where this Hurricane hit us.”

USDA Expedites $16 Billion in Disaster Aid Payments: What Crop Farmers Need to Know

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 20:13:49 GMT

It’s the largest portion of the $21 billion in disaster aid approved by Congress at the end of 2024. And this week, USDA announced farmers will be able to start signing up for $16 billion in disaster aid payments starting this week through the Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP).

The disaster aid was approved by Congress as part of the continuing resolution in December. On Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced producers who suffered eligible crop losses due to natural disasters in 2023 and 2024 can start applying for the $16 billion in assistance starting July 10. This is in addition to the $1 billion in livestock disaster aid already announced by USDA .

USDA says in order to expedite the process, its Farm Service Agency (FSA) will deliver the assistance in two stages.

Stage One: This is open to producers with eligible crop losses that received assistance under crop insurance or the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance program (NAP) during 2023 and 2024. USDA says those sign-ups will start in person at local FSA offices July 10. Prefilled applications are also being mailed to producers starting today.
Stage Two: Those sign-ups that apply to eligible shallow or uncovered losses will begin in early fall.

USDA says FSA is launching a streamlined, prefilled application process for eligible crop, tree and vine losses by leveraging existing NAP and Risk Management Agency indemnified loss data. The prefilled applications, which is part of stage one, is what is being mailed now.

“American farmers are no stranger to natural disasters that cause losses that leave no region or crop unscathed. Under President Trump’s leadership, USDA has worked around the clock to deliver this relief directly to our farmers,” said Secretary Rollins in a statement. “We are taking swift action to ensure farmers will have the resources they need to continue to produce the safest, most reliable and most abundant food supply in the world.”

Who’s Eligible?
Under the latest program, producers who suffered losses due to natural disasters in the 2023 and/or 2024 years are eligible. The disasters include wildfires, hurricanes, floods, derechos, excessive heat, tornadoes, winter storms, freeze (including a polar vortex), smoke exposure, excessive moisture, qualifying drought and related conditions.

When it comes to drought, USDA says the producer’s county must have been rated by the U.S. Drought Monitor as having a D2 (severe drought) for eight consecutive weeks, D3 (extreme drought) or greater intensity level during the applicable calendar year.

What’s Next?
Once those payments are released, USDA’s final phase of the American Relief Act will be another emergency livestock relief program, but this covers flood losses producers saw in 2023 and 2024.

Appleton says that’s been the most difficult program to outline and detail, as USDA has never administered a disaster program for livestock that covered losses due to flooding.

“We’ve never had a disaster program for livestock that was triggered on flooding, so that piece of it is going to take us a little bit longer,” USDA deputy undersecretary Brooke Appleton told Farm Journal last month. “As these programs are ready to roll out, we’re focused on doing it as soon as we can, rather than holding them all and doing it all at once. We want to make sure as soon is the assistance is ready to go, we are getting it out and getting it to the folks who need it.”

USDA says it is fully committed to expediting remaining disaster assistance provided by the American Relief Act 2025. On May 7, it launched its 2023/2024 Supplemental Disaster Assistance public landing page where the status of USDA disaster assistance and block grant roll out timeline can be tracked.

Ag Sector Could Score Big in Stopgap Spending

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 19:02:33 GMT

The House of Representatives released its Continuing Resolution (CR) text today, which includes:

A one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill
Around $10 billion in farmer economic aid
$21 billion in ag disaster funding for 2023 and 2024, which is part of the $100.4 billion to help the hurricane-stricken Southeast
Year-round E15 sales, which is a major victory for the corn and ethanol industries

The plan will offer credits to small refiners that petitioned for exemptions from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandates (2016 to 2018 compliance years) but were denied or had pending petitions as of Dec. 1, 2022. The RFS requires refiners to blend biofuels such as ethanol into gasoline or purchase compliance credits.

The provision would override a previous U.S. government decision allowing year-round E15 sales only in eight Midwestern states (set to begin in 2025).

Extension of Orphan Programs in 2018 Farm Bill
There also appears to be an extension of orphan programs in the 2018 farm bill extension and a permanent 1890s scholarship program. The icing on the cake is a four-year extension of SNAP fraud via the skimming reimbursement language.

Orphan programs are ones that were authorized in the 2018 farm bill but did not have funding beyond a specified year. The extension provides $177 million of new mandatory funding for programs that did not have a budget baseline. This ensures these programs can continue to operate during the extension period.

The 1890s scholarship program provides scholarships for students attending 1890 land-grant universities, which are historically Black colleges and universities that were established under the Second Morrill Act of 1890.

The SNAP Fraud Reimbursement extension is the continuation of reimbursements for stolen Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. This provision protects SNAP recipients from losses due to benefit theft via card skimming, cloning and other similar methods. States will continue to be required to replace stolen benefits under this measure.

One source said, “Good policy would be emphasizing the need for states to transition to more secure measures for SNAP recipients, including stronger identity verification practices.”

Of Note
Senate Ag Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) did not get her wish to move conservation/climate funding into a one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill. That discussion will occur next year.

Economic Aid and Disaster Funding
Disaster aid for crop losses due to natural disasters for 2023 and 2024 will total $21 billion.

The discussions for economic aid centered on a $10 billion package to help farmers cope with price declines and rising input costs. House Agriculture Chairman GT Thompson (R-Pa.) indicated that $10 billion is the minimum he would accept. He mentioned Republican support for reallocating conservation program funds from the 2022 legislation into the farm bill baseline, but that Republicans are disputing the “guardrails” that require funds to support “climate-smart” projects.

Thompson also noted concerns that some critics want to ensure President-elect Donald Trump would have access to funds to compensate farmers for potential retaliation stemming from new Trump import tariffs.

Year-Round E-15
Year-round sales of E15 ethanol has been a long-standing goal for corn growers and ethanol producers, particularly in states such as Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota where a significant portion of corn production goes into ethanol.

Currently, E15 is available at more than 3,200 gas stations in the U.S., indicating room for growth (there are more than 196,000 fuel stations in the U.S.). About 95% of model year 2024 vehicles are explicitly approved for E15 use by manufacturers.

The actual increase in ethanol usage would likely be gradual as E15 adoption expands. While the theoretical maximum ethanol usage through year-round E15 sales could reach 20,586 million gallons annually, the actual increase would depend on factors such as consumer adoption and infrastructure development — separate fuel handling and storage for E15.

Now What?
A vote in the House won’t happen until at least Thursday night if House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sticks to his plan to honor the rule giving members 72 hours to review the bill.

Other House Happenings
House Democrats removed Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) as their senior Agriculture Committee leader after he received just 5 votes in Monday’s influential steering panel vote. Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.) emerged as the frontrunner with 34 votes, while Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) trailed with 22 votes. Craig now heads into Tuesday’s full caucus vote, seeking additional support. Craig plans to rally House colleagues for the final vote. Meanwhile, Costa vowed to keep pushing and will try to supplant Craig in the full caucus. Lawmakers had anticipated Scott’s ouster amid growing skepticism of his leadership — Scott has dropped out of the race.

Craig indicated part of her pitch to the panel was that there are no other Ranking Members for Democrats from the U.S. Midwest.

“There’s not a single ranking member from the middle of the country right now, and that was certainly part of my pitch to my colleagues, is that if we want to represent this whole country, then we need ranking members and leaders in the Democratic Party who are from the whole country,” she stated.

Craig came into Congress in 2019 while Costa and Scott were elected in the early 2000s.

GOP Eyes Strategic Appointment to Boost House Majority
Republicans may have found a way to temporarily expand their narrow House majority: appointing a Democrat to the Trump administration. Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) is reportedly being considered to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) next year. The move would leave Democrats short a vote for weeks, bolster the GOP’s edge, and possibly help Republicans flip Moskowitz’s seat. Moskowitz, who previously served as Florida’s emergency management director under Gov. Ron DeSantis, could gain significant recognition if he pursues a 2026 gubernatorial bid. While his office and House Democratic leadership declined to comment, the appointment’s political ramifications are being closely watched ahead of Monday’s internal party elections.

Take our Poll: Do you think Congress should pass emergency relief for farmers in the CR? You can voice your opinion in our AgWeb poll.

Florida Citrus Growers Brace for Hurricane Milton as Forecasters Warn of 'Complete Destruction'

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 21:12:23 GMT

Milton strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane on a path toward Florida, with Governor Ron DeSantis declaring an emergency and millions of residents ordered to evacuate.

“Unless we get extremely lucky, Milton will be one of the biggest hurricane disasters in history,” leading Fox Weather hurricane meteorologist Bryan Norcross predicted Monday, shortly after the hurricane was upgraded to a Category 5 storm with winds of 180 mph.

Milton is forecast to make landfall on Florida’s west coast on Wednesday, likely between 6 PM and midnight. The center of the cone is near Tampa, but there is still uncertainty in the exact track. Norcross said it is too early to call where the storm will hit when it makes landfall Wednesday, but that if it follows the current trajectory and strikes Tampa Bay directly the city “will go underwater.” Meanwhile, Tampa’s mayor issued a dire warning before Hurricane Milton: “If you choose to stay … you are going to die.”

A forecast from the National Hurricane Center predicted storm surge for Tampa Bay could hit up to 15 feet. The storm is expected to cross the Florida peninsula and move into the Atlantic Ocean afterwards. There is an increased risk of tornadoes, with 11 million people under threat of tropical tornadoes on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Hurricane Milton is threatening to be one of the largest ever hurricanes with wind gusts already topping 200 miles per hour — leading to calls for a new Category 6 designation for such an intense superstorm. “This is nothing short of astronomical,” Florida meteorologist Noah Bergren said late Monday as Milton reached sustained winds of 180 mph and “gusts 200+ mph.” “I am at a loss for words to meteorologically describe to you the storm’s small eye and intensity,” he marveled. “This hurricane is nearing the mathematical limit of what Earth’s atmosphere over this ocean water can produce.”

Milton threatens to inflict wind damage in the northern two-thirds of Florida’s citrus belt this week, according to Commodity Weather Group. Orange juice futures rose up to 4.3% on Monday due to the threat to Florida’s citrus industry. U.S. natural gas futures fell over 4% in anticipation of reduced demand if power outages occur. Various events have been cancelled, including a championship ring ceremony for the Florida Panthers hockey team.

Citrus producers are urged to keep accurate records to document any damage or loss, including dated photos1. It’s critical for growers to report farm damage to their local USDA Service Center before starting any cleanup or repair activities. This documentation is essential for potential financial assistance from USDA.

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has suspended size and weight restrictions for vehicles transporting emergency equipment, services, supplies, and agricultural commodities, including citrus. This emergency measure allows these vehicles to travel at all hours and is set to expire on Oct. 21 or upon rescission of the executive orders.

Hurricane season generally lasts through November.

Of note: New estimates reveal Hurricane Helene caused more than $47 billion in losses for property owners. The price tag for climate-related disasters is growing. Last year, storms in the U.S. caused $93.1 billion in damages, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Their cumulative toll, dating to 1980, now stands at $2.6 trillion.

Georgia Farmers Say Hurricane Helene is Most Catastrophic, Costly Storm Ever

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 19:29:59 GMT

Farmers in southeast Georgia are still trying to recover from Hurricane Helene, the most catastrophic and costly hurricane they’ve ever seen, superseding even Hurricane Katrina.

Cleanup is underway, but it might take years to put the pieces back together. Farmers say with lower commodity prices, many were already on the financial brink before the storm.

Catastrophic Damage from Hurricane Helene

The loss from Hurricane Helene was devastating for farmers in southeast Georgia. A foot of rain and hurricane winds of 125 mph ripped through Coffey County, the epicenter.

“We were considered one of the hotspots for it because that was the highest-recorded wind. We had 30 tornadoes also come through this county at the same time during the hurricane,” says Van Grantham, a farmer in Coffee County, Ga.

He says the biggest loss was to timber as tree stands they’ve been growing for 35 to 40 years are completely gone and will cost $1,000 per acre to cleanup and restore.

“There was probably 75% to as high as 100% damage on timber stands,” he adds.

Damage from Hurricane Helene to the timber trees in southeast Georgia.

(Andrew Lyon )

Severe Impact on Agriculture in Coffey County

The Granthams also have 215 acres of peanuts to harvest and 1,400 acres of cotton. The latter has been nearly wiped out.

“We’ve lost all of our cotton acres and peanuts,” Grantham says. “We should have been midway through harvest, if not three-quarters. We can’t get into the fields, and they’re saying everything is down [power] for another three to four weeks.”

Damage from Hurricane Helene to the cotton crop in southeast Georgia.

(Andrew Lyon)

Livestock Losses

In addition to row crops, the Granthams also lost livestock. They lost several cattle and over 100,000 chickens on their operation.

It’s a story of dramatic losses and damage when you talk to any farmer in southeast Georgia right now.

“It’s about a four-county area that was hit. It’s counties like Kulfi County, Jeff Davis and Atkinson County,” he adds. “I know there’s 598 chicken houses total, but there’s 298 on the ground.”

The Financial Hit From the Storm

Thousands of farms and homes are still out of electricity and water. Farmers in southeast Georgia have met with state and federal officials with the message they need disaster assistance immediately.

“It was already struggling before, and then this just kind of added way more on us physically, mentally and financially. I mean, this is a financial burden with the devastation,” adds Chase Grantham, Van’s son.

The damage caused by Hurricane Helene to infrastructure in southeast Georgia is monumental. Not only did the hurricane pack a punch of high winds, but it also brought more than 30 tornadoes to the area.

(Andrew Lyon)

While the immediate needs are clear, Chase says it could take farmers several years to rebuild and they may never be whole.

Seeing the Devastation First-Hand

Farm Journal’s Trust in Food team traveled to southeast Georgia last week and saw the devastation first-hand. The team spoke to growers, walked cotton fields torn to shreds by the storm and saw infrastructure crushed by the storm. Trust in Food’s Andrew Lyon spoke to AgriTalk’s Chip Flory about what the team saw last week and the impact it could have on growers for years to come. You can listen to that conversation here.

Hurricane Helene Shutters Poultry Plants, But Smithfield Did Not Suffer Material Disruptions

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 12:39:00 GMT

Hurricane Helene shut at least two poultry plants in Georgia and North Carolina and twisted cotton crops in South Carolina in blows to U.S. food and fiber production, company and agriculture officials said on Monday.

More than 100 deaths across a half-dozen states have been attributed to the powerful storm that slammed into Florida’s Big Bend region late on Thursday before cutting a destructive path through Georgia and into the Carolinas.

Wayne-Sanderson Farms, the nation’s third largest poultry producer, closed a Moultrie, Ga., processing plant due to a loss of electrical power from downed transmission lines, company spokesman Frank Singleton said.

The complex processes 1.3 million chickens weekly and its timeline for resuming operations depends on Georgia Power crews restoring power, Singleton said. The company is providing fuel deliveries to local farms that also lost power, he said.

In South Carolina, many poultry operations are running on backup generators, said Eva Moore, spokesperson for the South Carolina Department of Agriculture. The state’s cotton crops took a big hit, she added.

“Open bolls have been knocked around, and plants are twisted,” Moore said. “This will make for a complicated harvest and may affect the grades of the cotton.”

Concerns over potential crop damage in key growing areas boosted ICE cotton futures.

In North Carolina, Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork processor, said transportation for its hog production operations was strained but the company did not suffer material disruptions.

A chicken plant near Morganton, N.C., is down, said Bob Ford, executive director of the North Carolina Poultry Federation. Still, the poultry industry was generally lucky because feed mills are operating and floods largely did not affect farms, he said.

For live chickens around Morganton, “they’re just going to get fatter” until the processing plant reopens, possibly on Wednesday, Ford said.

(Reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Your Next Read: U.S. Southeast Faces Daunting Cleanup from Helene as Death Toll Rises

U.S. Southeast Faces Daunting Cleanup from Helene as Death Toll Rises

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 13:55:04 GMT

Authorities across the southeastern U.S. faced the daunting task on Saturday of cleaning up from Hurricane Helene, one of the most powerful and perhaps costliest storms to hit the country, as the death toll continued to rise.

At least 47 deaths were reported by early Saturday, and officials feared still more bodies would be discovered across several states.

Damage estimates across the storm’s rampage range between $95 billion and $110 billion, potentially making this one of the most expensive storms in modern U.S. history, said Jonathan Porter, chief meteorologist of AccuWeather, a commercial forecasting company.

Downgraded late on Friday to a post-tropical cyclone, the remnants of Helene continued to produce heavy rains across several states, sparking massive flooding that threatened to cause dam failures that could inundate entire towns.

“The devastation we’re witnessing in Hurricane Helene’s wake has been overwhelming,” President Joe Biden said on Saturday. “Jill and I continue to pray for all of those who have lost loved ones and for everyone impacted by this storm.”

Biden was briefed about the loss of life and storm’s impact
on multiple states by Deanne Criswell, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and Liz Sherwood-Randall, the White House’s homeland security adviser, the White House said.

The president directed them to continue to focus on speeding up support to storm survivors and accelerating recovery efforts, including the immediate deployment of additional search and rescue teams into North Carolina, it added.

At least 3 million customers remained without power on Saturday afternoon across five states, with authorities warning it could be several days before services were fully restored.

The worst outages were in South Carolina with more than 1
million homes and businesses without power, and Georgia where 750,000 were without power.

Some of the worst rains hit western North Carolina, which
saw almost 30 inches (76 cm) fall on Mount Mitchell in Yancey County, the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center reported.

Atlanta was hit with 13 inches of rain, and farmers in South
Georgia were assessing the damage to the state’s $1 billion
cotton crop and $400 million pecan crop now in harvest season.

Before moving north through Georgia and into Tennessee and the Carolinas, Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend region as a powerful Category 4 hurricane on Thursday night, packing 140 mph (225 kph) winds. It left behind a chaotic landscape of overturned boats in harbors, felled trees, submerged cars and flooded streets.

Police and firefighters carried out thousands of water rescues throughout the affected states on Friday.

More than 50 people were rescued from the roof of a hospital in Unicoi County, Tennessee, about 120 miles (193 km) northeast of Knoxville, state officials said, after flood waters swamped the rural community.

‘CHIMNEY ROCK IS GONE’

The NWS issued flash flood warnings overnight for a swath of eastern Tennessee covering 100,000 residents, warning them to seek higher ground. The Nolichucky Dam in Tennessee’s Greene County was on the brink of failure on Saturday, officials reported, adding that a breach could occur at any time.

In western North Carolina, Rutherford County emergency officials warned residents near the Lake Lure Dam that it might fail, although they said late on Friday that did not appear imminent.

Multiple people in and around Chimney Rock, N.C., described the village’s downtown as washed out, with images online showing inches of mud and sediment, uprooted trees and snapped telephone poles and buildings turned into debris.

“All right folks, listen up, Chimney Rock is gone, Flowering Bridge is gone,” somebody known as Touristpov posted on TikTok, showing videos of the destruction. “I don’t know what they’ll do to get us out of here.”

In nearby Buncombe County, landslides forced Interstate Highways 40 and 26 to close and parts of them were washed out, the county said on X.

Mountain communities such as Boone and Burnsville, N.C., were cut off as highways were clogged with debris or washed out, said Rebecca Newton, who was scrambling to find anyone with cell service in the area who could check on her family home near Mount Mitchell.

“Towns are totally cut off,” she said after spending her morning making dozens of calls to friends in the area. “They’re using helicopters to get people out of Boone and Asheville.”

“Spruce Pine is gone, nothing but rooftops poking out of water,” she said of the mountain community about 50 miles northeast of Asheville.

Newton said a friend told her she had watched houses in her neighborhood slide one at a time into a river near Boone.

“It’s unreal,” she said.

The Burnsville Hub Facebook page is replete with people desperate to find anyone to check on relatives and friends cut off from telephone service.

One poster, Rachel Richmond, wrote, “I need any route that will get me as close as I can. I will walk the rest of the way. I need to get to my parents.”

WAKING TO DISASTER

The extent of the damage in Florida began emerging after daybreak on Friday.

In coastal Steinhatchee, a storm surge - a wall of seawater pushed ashore by winds - of eight to 10 feet (2.4-3 meters) moved mobile homes, the weather service said. In Treasure Island, a barrier island community in Pinellas County, boats were grounded in front yards.

The city of Tampa posted on X that emergency personnel had completed 78 water rescues of residents and that many roads were impassable because of flooding. The Pasco County sheriff’s office rescued more than 65 people.

A total of 11 people died in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis said on Saturday, speaking in Perry, Fla., which saw 15-foot storm surges, larger than those seen in hurricanes in recent years.

“If you look around here, you can see that some homes are just rubble,” he said. “This stuff comes in, it’s fierce and it’s just unstoppable.”

FEMA’s Criswell joined DeSantis on a tour of storm-damaged areas of the state. She will travel to Georgia on Sunday and North Carolina on Monday, the White House said.

“I just want to say on behalf of the president that we extend our deepest sympathies for those families that have lost loved ones,” Criswell said.

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s office reported 15 storm-related fatalities in that state, while North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said there had been two deaths there.

At least 19 people died during the storm across South Carolina, the Charleston-based Post and Courier newspaper reported, citing local officials.

(Reporting and writing by Rich McKay; additional reporting by Joseph Ax, Andrew Hay, Brad Brooks, Ismail Shakil and Andrea Shalal; Editing by Bill Berkrot, Daniel Wallis and Paul Simao)

Fallout from Francine: Hurricane Wreaks Havoc on Barge Traffic and Shutters Key Ports

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 20:03:08 GMT

Farmers in the southern U.S. rushed to harvest key crops like cotton and rice ahead of Hurricane Francine’s arrival.

Francine made landfall Wednesday as a Category 2 hurricane about 60 miles southwest of New Orleans, before weakening to Category 1. A state of emergency is in effect for Louisiana and Mississippi. New Orleans is under a shelter-in-place order after evacuation windows closed.

Impacts:
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said that as of Sept. 11, personnel were evacuated from 171 production platforms in the Gulf, 46% of the 371 manned platforms in operation there. People have been evacuated from three non-dynamically positioned (DP) rigs, equivalent to 60% of the five rigs of that type operating, with a total of four DP rigs have been moved out of the path of the storm, 20% of the 20 DP rigs operating in the Gulf. BSEE estimates that approximately 38.56% of the current oil production and 48.77% of the current natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico has been shut-in.

Barge traffic has also been interrupted, with Mike Steenhoek of the Soy Transportation Coalition noting that barge companies are not sending barge flotillas into the region until the storm has moved on.

USDA reported that as of Sept. 8, 72% of cotton bolls were open in Louisiana, 69% in Mississippi, 83% in Arkansas, 46% in Alabama, and 44% in Georgia, leaving those fields susceptible to damage from heavy rains and wind.

The toughest harvest rush for a rice 🌾 farmer, is going full throttle before a hurricane. Overwhelming emotional, fueled with adrenaline rushes, pushing the limits, and trying to be perfect at an unsustainable pace. I hope all is safe, 🙏
— Scott Matthews (@SMatthewsfarms) September 12, 2024

Several port locations have also been shuttered with Port Fourchon, Louisiana, closed to vessel traffic along with ports of New Orleans, Plaquemines, Cameron, Lake Charles and Houma.

Flood Warnings and Destructive Winds

As the storm’s center moved north through Louisiana, officials warned of potential tornadoes and dangerous storm surge. Francine is expected to continue into Mississippi Thursday, with flood warnings extending to Florida. Francine brought hurricane-force winds, heavy rainfall, and storm surge to coastal Louisiana.

New Orleans reported wind gusts of 78 mph as the eyewall passed through. This marks Louisiana’s first hurricane landfall since the devastating Hurricane Ida in 2021.

Florida's Hurricane Ian Losses Total Over $1 Billion

Tue, 25 Oct 2022 20:14:00 GMT

Florida’s Department of Ag issued preliminary loss figures from Hurricane Ian. Losses to Florida ag and infrastructure total between $1.18 billion and $1.89 billion, according to the preliminary assessment.

The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Ag Services (UF/IFAS) last week said that the preliminary losses for Ian were around $1.56 billion, while the government update issued this week takes into account citrus tree replacement, animal infrastructure damage and forestry.

Hurricane Ian Disaster Aid

Florida Commissioner of Ag Nikki Fried said the preliminary assessment is a “first step” in trying to get federal disaster aid for affected producers, noting the state would continue working with industry partners to “gain further insight into the depth and breadth of Ian’s damage.”

Detailed figures from the state on Hurricane Ian include:

$676 million for citrus, including fruit loss (up to $304 million) and tree loss ($371 million).
Storm is likely to have destroyed 8% to 11% of Florida citrus trees, which would be more than 6.1 million trees.
Other fruit and vegetable losses are pegged at up to $231 million, a loss of about 10% to 15%, while losses for row crops were put at about $160 million with horticultural crops seeing losses of around $297 million.
Losses for animal agriculture are seen at around $492 million which includes damage to things like barns, fences, equipment and roads besides losses of livestock and damage to forage production areas.

Loss Estimates for Hurricane Ian

USDA said earlier this month their estimates of U.S. citrus production were completed before Hurricane Ian arrived and the Florida citrus production figures released Oct. 12 did not reflect potential damage from the storm and that the next update on citrus production will come Dec. 9.

They also noted that the “full impact of the storm may not be reflected until future reports.”

More on Hurricane Ian:

Mosaic Shares Recovery Details After Hurricane Ian
Florida Producers Scramble to Reach Cattle After Hurricane Ian

Resilience of Farmers on Full Display After Hurricane Ida Ravaged Louisiana Agriculture

Fri, 26 Nov 2021 17:23:05 GMT

Hurricane Ida ravaged Louisiana agriculture this fall. The hurricane brought as much as two feet of rain in some areas, as producers grappled with losses and aftermath.

“My community took a hell of a beating,” Ashly Pitre, president of LaFourche Parish Cattleman’s Association, told “This Week in Louisiana Agriculture.”

Cattle were stranded for days, and producers worked around the clock to get to their livestock and move them to safety. But even then, the Hurricane left its mark, as This Week in Louisiana Agriculture covered it first-hand this year.

“My biggest concern is the water to drink,” Pitre says. “All that grass is rotten. The grass thinks the water stinks, and I’m concerned they might get sick by drinking that nasty water.”

“I lost everything due to, the rain,” said Derrick Jarvis. “It tore the roof off my barn where I keep my feed and hay. I lost everything.”

As producers worked to wade through the aftermath after Hurricane Ida, help for those who felt helpless was on its way.

“We’re here this afternoon at the Louis Mouch Junior Multipurpose Facility in Port Allen, La., and we’re waiting on a delivery of hay for livestock recovery for Hurricane Ida,” Christine Navarre told Louisiana Farm Bureau.

With the warnings of Hurricane Ida’s arrival, she was getting calls from people in Texas saying they were there to help. The orchestrated effort of support was powerful to see.

“This is what farming is all about,” said Jason LeBlanc. “Neighbors helping neighbors. No one farmer has everything they need. They always have to rely on a neighbor to help them — no matter what it is, they always need a neighbor.”

Insurance Losses Mount as Hurricane Ida Could Become Top Five Costliest Hurricanes in History

Fri, 24 Sep 2021 02:04:27 GMT

Work continues on cleaning up from Hurricane Ida with logistical problems remaining for moving grains through Louisiana’s Gulf Coast.

Now, the Wall Street Journal is putting a dollar amount on the damage. The report shows the storm is poised to be one of the top five costliest hurricanes based on insurance losses. Risk Management Solutions is estimating insured losses between $31 billion and $44 billion.

The storm had a long tail, not just hitting Louisiana, but also causing damage in the Northeast as it moved on after making landfall.

Reuters reports the costs are also adding up for grain handlers who tell them Gulf shipping issues are causing the cost for barge freight to rise along rivers in the Midwest.

Gulf Of Mexico Barge Traffic: A Delicate Balance and The $1 Million Question

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 19:53:10 GMT

Hurricane Idea brought a devastating hit to the Gulf of Mexico and the ag shipping industry—untethering and damaging barges as well as causing damage to important facilities.

According to the Soy Transportation Coalition, the 256-mile stretch of the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to the Gulf of Mexico accounts for 60% of U.S. soybean exports, as well as 59% of corn exports
Soy Transportation Coalition Executive Director Mike Steenhoek explains the 150 mile per hour sustained winds of Hurricane Ida packed quite a punch. The storm materialized in a just a matter of days, which underscores the importance of being able to rapidly take precautionary measures and build resiliency in the infrastructure system.

“We were happy to see the levee infrastructure hold,” he told AgriTalk host Chip Flory. “The time to respond to a catastrophe is before the catastrophe. Hopefully, as we continue to debate and design a strategy for our infrastructure, we can take the whole issue of resiliency and have it just be a way of doing business. Bake it into the cake, so that with resiliency measures you include it when you’re actually constructing it not when you’re trying to take corrective action after a storm like Hurricane Ida arrives.”

Steenhoek reports that all barges have been corralled. But there’s considerable damage to some, which is being reflected in shipping rates that were already reflecting their early harvest season uptick.

“Rates go up at this time of year, but when all of the sudden you take a decent number of barges just out of your inventory, and then you’re still expecting that supply chain to be able to accommodate the throughput–we’re just really not able to do that right now and so it puts upward pressure on rates,” he says.
One barge can carry 55,000 bu. of soybeans, and with harvest getting started upriver in the upper Midwest, he sees high demand and the potential for delays.

“You’ve got harvest coming online in places like Mississippi, and then normally you want all of that to clear out of the system before the real tsunami of Iowa and Illinois and Kentucky and Missouri and all these other states come online so that it’s always a real delicate balance.”

Adding to the barge issues is the infrastructure damage to the Cargill and CHS facilities in the region.
“There are 14 soybean and grain loading facilities between Baton Rouge, Louisiana past New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico,” he says. “The one that’s most notable is the Cargill facility in the town of Reserve, Louisiana and that’s about 30 miles northwest of New Orleans. And it’s the conveyer system is damaged pretty significantly and that’s what actually loads the vessels.”

It’s reported 7% to 8% of all exports leave from this facility. Steenhoek says he is unsure of how long the repair work will take, but he thinks it’s the ‘million dollar question’ if it’s a matter of weeks or will take several months.
“It’s clearly more than me toolbox in hand going down to fix it,” he says. “It’s gonna be a pretty significant repair.”

The second facility of note that is still experiencing the effects of Hurricane Ida is the Myrtle Grove CHS facility that is in the area without full power restored.

Listen to the full interview here:

As Farmers and Ranchers Measure Impact from Hurricane Ida, Here's How You Can Help

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 20:51:27 GMT

Less than a week after Louisiana was ravaged by Hurricane Ida , farmers and ranchers are assessing the damage with recovery gets underway. And now a disaster relief fund is aimed to provide financial help.

The Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation is engaging the Louisiana Farm Bureau Foundation Disaster Relief Fund for the second time in as many years in response to damage caused by Hurricane Ida. Ida tied as the strongest storm to ever make landfall in Louisiana.

Hurricane Ida’s 150 mph winds destroyed the homes of farmers and ranchers along its path with some farmers reporting they remained in the eye wall of the storm for six hours. Thousands of head of cattle have been displaced because of damaged fences and flooding, The wind toppled pine trees and hardwood ready for harvest and blew sugarcane flat, affecting about 25% of the crop.

“Our farmers and ranchers really didn’t need another natural disaster” said Louisiana Farm Bureau President Jim Harper. “Last year they had to endure five tropical systems making landfall in Louisiana, including hurricanes Laura and Delta.”

The Louisiana Farm Bureau Foundation Disaster Relief Fund is the conduit established by the state’s largest general farm organization following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 to get funds into the hands of those involved in agriculture for rebuilding and recovery.

“We’re already seeing farmers helping farmers here at home, but those out of state are looking for ways they can help,” Harper said. “The Disaster Relief Fund gives them a way to help folks here recover, without having to travel.”

“We’re going to make sure every dollar donated gets into the hands of a farmer or rancher who needs it,” said Harper.

During the Farm Journal Farm Country Update this week, Vilsack gave an update on where USDA stands with assessing the damage, as well as possible next steps in gettin producers help.

Overall, damage from Hurricane Ida is estimated to cost $18 billion. That estimate includes more than just the losses to agriculture.

To donate, make checks payable to Louisiana Farm Bureau Foundation Disaster Relief Fund and mail them to:

Louisiana Farm Bureau Foundation

Disaster Relief Fund

P.O. Box 95004

Baton Rouge, LA 70895-9004

Direct Hit to Key Export Elevators, 22 Barges on the Loose: Logistical Nightmare Unfolds from Hurricane Ida

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 15:00:53 GMT

Hurricane Ida’s destructive winds are wreaking havoc on a vital export shipping vein, as grain elevators and barge traffics continue to be tangled from the impacts of the hurricane this week.

Monday, reports surfaced that Hurricane Ida damaged a Louisiana grain export elevator owned by Cargill Inc. It was said to have “sustained significant damage.” Ken Erickson, senior vice president of agribusiness with IHS market, focuses on transportation and infrastructure. He says as the destruction continues to surface, it’s apparent that the U.S. export program could run into some serious delays as the area works to recovery from the impacts of Hurricane Ida.

“We’ve got a couple of them that are going to be down for a while, especially with Cargill having just lost some of its elevation to the ships, they’ve got capability to load two ships there,” says Erikson on AgriTalk. “There are others that are going to be without power for awhile, and power is the big story down there with two to four weeks, if not longer, of no power just across the entire region.”

Plagued with Power Outages

While there was good news that no levees had topped from the storm surge, the issue of power could plague a key U.S. export area for weeks.

“Thankfully, all the work that went on after Katrina with the levees held it in place and we didn’t have major topping and breakthroughs. But it’s this power thing,” says Erikson. “And where this this hurricane came through, thankfully, it kind of hit in some not as populous areas, but boy, the winds just did some serious damage, and we had a direct hit on those expert elevators. That’s going to be hitting our complex at perhaps the worst time going forward here.”

Erikson says the U.S. is entering a critical time for exports, especially soybeans, and recovery will need to be swift to prevent any further erosion to the U.S. export program this year.

“In many respects, if there’s ever a bad time, this is about as good as it gets to have this take place. The one thing for the major destruction at reserve is going to be one that’s going to be down. If you think about the U.S. center Gulf, they have handled nearly 3 billion bushels of exports a year. That’s nearly 60% of U.S. corn, wheat, sorghum and soybean exports. They’ve got the capability to do about 3.6 billion bushels, almost 4 billion bushels, annually. They’re running at a fairly high level of capacity utilization as it is.”

Critical Time for Exports

The grain elevators that took a direct hit from Hurricane Ida this week weren’t small facilities. Erikson says it will be imperative for those facilities to recovery quickly.

“When you start taking out like a Cargill reserve, that probably is about 8% to 10% of center Gulf capacity. CHS Myrtle Grove is down for a few weeks here without power, and it is a similar size facility with about 7% to 8% capacity share, those get to be important,” says Erikson. “We’ve seen inspections, the last few weeks been very anemic, and we’re not seeing big flows moving at the moment. This is perhaps the best time for something to happen. And by the time we get the power back on and stuff going, that’ll be great. It’s just that we’re gonna have with some big destruction, and we may learn of others as well. That could be the problem going to this fall when we need everything running really well to get this Expert program moving that we’ve got plugged in right now.”

The Soybean Transportation Coalition (STC) notes that while August isn’t a key time for soybean exports, there’s still a healthy amount of corn typically loaded onto barges this time of year. During the week ending Aug. 19, STC notes 464,138 metric tons (18.3 million bushels) of corn, 141,859 metric tons (5.2 million bushels) of soybeans, and 71,696 metric tons (2.6 million bushels) of wheat were exported from the terminals along the lower Mississippi River. In total, 487 barges of grain were unloaded in the area that week alone.

Runaway Barges

It’s more than just power outages that could influence the recovery timeline. On Monday, officials reported 22 barges on the loose with one hitting a bridge in Laffite, La. Leaders believe the bridge is now structurally unsound, but no word on how that could impact barge traffic moving forward.

In Ida's Wake, Louisiana Faces a Month with No Power as Heat Soars

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 13:06:58 GMT

South Louisiana braced for a month without electricity and reliable water service in the wake of Hurricane Ida, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, as people faced suffocating heat and humidity.

By early Tuesday, about 1.3 million customers were without power about 48 hours after the storm made landfall, most of them in Louisiana, according to PowerOutage https://poweroutage.us, which gathers data from U.S. utility companies.

The storm killed at least four people, officials said, a toll that perhaps would have been much larger if not for a fortified levee system built around New Orleans after the city was devastated by Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago. (Graphic of Hurricane Ida hitting Gulf Coast https://tmsnrt.rs/3yrcULP)

Officials were unable to complete a full damage assessment because downed trees clogged roads, U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Deanne Criswell said.

Compounding the suffering, parts of Louisiana and Mississippi were under heat advisories, with a heat index in much of the area reaching 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday, the National Weather Service said.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said, “Nobody is satisfied” with the estimate that power may not be restored for 30 days. He expressed hope the 20,000 line workers in the state and thousands more en route could finish sooner.

“We all want air conditioning....Even if you have a generator, after so many days they fail,” Edwards said.

At Ochsner St. Anne Hospital southwest of New Orleans, 6,000-gallon tanker trucks pumped fuel and water into tanks behind the hospital to keep the air conditioning running. The medical center closed to all but a few emergency patients.

New Orleans’ restaurants, many of which had closed ahead of the storm, also faced an uncertain future due to a lack of electricity and other infrastructure, mirroring - at least for now - the issues that plagued businesses for weeks in the wake of Katrina.

“This is definitely feeling like Katrina,” said Lisa Blount, the public relations director at Antoine’s, a French Quarter landmark and the city’s oldest eatery. “To hear the power is potentially out for two to three weeks, that is devastating.”

Even the power generators were hazardous. Nine people in St. Tammany Parish northeast of New Orleans were taken to the hospital overnight for carbon monoxide poisoning from a gas- fueled generator, local media reported.

Power officials have told leaders in Jefferson Parish south of New Orleans that its roughly 440,000 people may have to manage without electricity for a month or longer after utility poles toppled across the county, Councilman Deano Bonano said in a telephone interview.

“The damage from this is far worse than Katrina from a wind standpoint,” said Bonano. ‘THEY HAVE NOTHING’

Among the four deaths were two people killed in the collapse of a southeastern Mississippi highway that critically injured 10 others. One man died attempting to drive through high water in New Orleans and another when a tree fell on a Baton Rouge home.

The swampy areas south of New Orleans took the brunt of the storm. High waters finally receded from the highway leading to Port Fourchon, Louisiana’s southernmost port, leaving behind a trail of dead fish. Seagulls swarmed the highway to eat them.

Port Fourchon suffered extensive damage, and some roads were still not passable. Officials were only allowing emergency responders through to Grand Isle, a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico. It could take weeks before the roads were fully passable, they said.

A gas station stocked with fuel in Mathews, a community in Lafourche Parish, had a line of cars stretching for at least a mile.

More than half the residents of Jefferson Parish rode out the storm at home, Bonano said, and many were left with nothing.

“There are no grocery stores open, no gas stations open. So they have nothing,” he said.

HIGHWAY ‘WASHED OUT’

The weakened remnants of the storm dumped heavy rain in neighboring Mississippi on Tuesday as it traveled toward Alabama and Tenneessee. Heavy rainfall and flash flooding were possible on Wednesday in the mid-Atlantic region and southern New England, forecasters said.

Sheriff’s deputies in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana were investigating the disappearance of a 71-year-old man after an apparent alligator attack in the flood waters.

The man’s wife told authorities that she saw a large alligator attack her husband on Monday in the tiny community of Avery Estates, about 35 miles (55 km) northeast of New Orleans. She stopped the attack and pulled her husband out of the flood water.

Seeing that his injuries were severe, she took a small boat to get help and came back to find her husband gone, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

(Reporting by Devikda Krishna Kumar in New Orleans and Peter Szekely in New York; Additional reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut, Barbara Goldberg in Maplewood, New Jersey, and Maria Caspani in New York; Writing by Maria Caspani and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Steve Orlofsky, Lisa Shumaker and Cynthia Osterman)

Floods, Outages Stall Energy Firms' Restart Efforts After Ida

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 19:12:21 GMT

Widespread flooding from Hurricane Ida and power outages on Tuesday slowed efforts by energy companies to assess damages at oil production facilities, ports and refineries.

A substantial portion of Louisiana lost electricity on Monday after Ida downed transmission lines and flooded communities, leaving more than 1 million customers without power. Coastal areas were swamped by a storm surge so great it reversed the flow of the Mississippi River.

Analysts said it could take two to three weeks to restart producing platforms and fully resume output at Louisiana refineries. Restoring power, critical to refineries, also could take weeks, utilities officials said.

“This restoration is not going to be a likely quick turnaround,” said Rod West, head of utility operations at Entergy Corp. “This was a significant catastrophic wind event, whereas Katrina was a water event by comparison.”

Disruptions at oil infrastructure are testing U.S. fuel distribution systems. Offshore oil and gas pipelines that feed processing plants remained largely shut, with a few beginning to restart.

The Colonial Pipeline - the largest fuel line to the East Coast - restarted late Monday the main gasoline and distillate lines it had shut ahead of the storm.

Phillips 66 has yet to begin damage assessments at its 255,600-barrel-per-day refinery on the Mississippi River in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, a spokesman said. The plant, which was put up for sale last week, was swamped when a nearby levee failed.

Floods have been reported at other facilities in Louisiana. Nine refineries have reduced production or shut operations, including Exxon’s 520,000-bpd Baton Rouge, taking offline 2.3 million bpd of capacity, or 13% of the country’s total, the U.S. Department of Energy estimated.

Most offshore U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil and gas output was halted with 94% of oil and natural gas production suspended on Tuesday, U.S. regulator Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said. A total of 278 production platforms and nine rigs remained evacuated.

Ports from New Orleans to Pascagoula, Mississippi, were closed on Tuesday, including Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the largest U.S. privately owned crude export and import terminal. LOOP’s initial review found no major damage to marine operations, a person familiar with the matter said, and the company was working with oil shippers to minimize disruption.

“With widespread refinery outages and debris on waterways, we expect no imports into the impacted ports in the coming days,” analysis firm ClipperData said in a note to clients.

Oil prices fell on Tuesday, as the shuttering of refineries will temporarily sap demand for crude. U.S. gasoline futures were also lower.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday waived an environmental rule to allow winter-grade gasoline to be sold in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Regional gasoline prices are expected to rise temporarily, the American Automotive Association said, though flooding could sap demand in the Gulf Coast.

Pipeline operator Enbridge temporarily suspended some contracts under force majeure, while Energy Transfer informed shippers that its Stingray Pipeline, which brings gas from the U.S. Gulf to Louisiana, would not accept deliveries.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba, Stephanie Kelly and Liz Hampton; Writing by Marianna Parraga in Houston; Editing by David Gregorio and Steve Orlofsky)

Remnants of Hurricane Ida Expected to Bring Several Inches of Rain Inland, Potential for More Flooding

Tue, 31 Aug 2021 15:58:17 GMT

Hurricane Ida hammered southeast Louisiana, as the Category 4 storm came with 150 mph winds. And as the system moves across the U.S., meteorologist Mike Hoffman says some areas could experience significant rainfall.

“We always have to be concerned beyond what happens off the coast with a hurricane like Ida, and it’s the rainfall that ends up being a huge problem as we look inland a lot farther from the coast,” says Hoffman.

Downgraded to a tropical depression Monday evening, Hoffman says some areas still saw six to 10 inches of rainfall over the past 24 hours, causing flooding concerns. And as Hoffman tracks the remnants making their way into the Midwest and Northeast, more rainfall is expected to hit portions of the U.S.

“You can see how it takes it right across the Tennessee Valley, parts of the Ohio Valley, especially the eastern sections. And then you get into eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia and Pennsylvania and on into southern New England. Some of those amounts could be huge amounts, mainly because of the mountainous regions in those parts of the country.”

We’ll continue to bring you the latest on the impact of Hurricane Ida, including impact to shipping and input production:

Hurricane Ida Shutters Exports with No Clear Timeline on How Long Shipping Delays Could Last

Hurricane Ida Idles Largest Glyphosate Production Plant in the U.S.

Hurricane Ida Shutters Ag Exports with No Clear Timeline on How Long Shipping Delays Could Last

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 22:05:38 GMT

Hurricane Ida packed a punch of 150 mph winds this weekend, leaving more than 1 million people in New Orleans without power. In the process, the monster storm crippled some grain shipping facilities in a key export area along the lower Mississippi River, creating concerns over how long export activity could be shuttered.

The shipping issues caused by Hurricane Ida could have a major impact on the overall export picture. The Port of South Louisiana is a major shipping hub, as it’s the largest grain port in the United States. Grain elevators within the Port handle more than 50% of all U.S. grain exports annually.

“You have a system that’s overall under stress and then you insert a weather event like this, and it kind of just adds insult to injury,” says Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soybean Transportation Coalition (STC) .

Markets Tumble Over Export Uncertainty

The initial reaction was part of the spark that sent commodity prices tumbling Sunday night into Monday. ProFarmer’s Brian Grete says while technical selling spurred a sell-off, the fundamental concerns over Hurricane Ida and the impact on a key shipping area also fueled the price pressure.

“In the Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Ida really did have an impact there,” says Grete. “But it’s going to take some time, and markets don’t like uncertainty. We know that at a minimum (the) export situation will be slowed for a little bit. It could be slowed significantly, depending on what kind of damage there is to those loading rigs and those types of things. So, it’s kind of a wait and see.”

Corn, Soybean Shipments at Risk

Fears surfaced in the markets Monday as questions started to circulate over just how long the supply chains and river facilities will be disrupted in the lower Mississippi River area.

As of Saturday night, the U.S. Coast Guard ordered no vessel movement on the lower Mississippi River from the Gulf of Mexico to river mile 303. To put that into perspective, Steenhoek says Baton Rouge is at river mile 232 and New Orleans is at river mile 100.

According to STC, the lower Mississippi River is by far the largest export region for soybeans (61%) and corn (58%). Therefore, he says any lengthy disruption to export activity in this key region warrants industry attention and concern.

“They know that hurricanes are a frequent, unwanted guest in the area, so they build those facilities with resilience in mind to be able to absorb a punch, but 150 mile an hour sustained wind is quite a punch,” he says. “And you can’t really experience that kind of sustained wind, that severity of it, without having some degree of damage. And so that’s something that we’re going to certainly be monitoring, because that can be more long-lasting and have a real detrimental impact on our export program moving forward, particularly as the fall season starts to arrive.”

STC notes that while August isn’t a key time for soybean exports, there’s still a healthy amount of corn typically loaded onto barges this time of year. During the week ending August 19, STC notes 464,138 metric tons (18.3 million bushels) of corn, 141,859 metric tons (5.2 million bushels) of soybeans, and 71,696 metric tons (2.6 million bushels) of wheat were exported from the terminals along the lower Mississippi River. In total, 487 barges of grain were unloaded in the area that week alone.

Shipping Delays Add “Insult to Injury”

As shippers enter September, the concern for soybeans is over further delays, as any backup could impact soybean exports that start to pick up in September and typically run strong through February.

“The good news is we’ve got what looks to be a pretty healthy supply that can accommodate that demand. But as we all know, if you can’t connect supply with demand the transaction never occurs, and farmers will never be profitable. And so that’s something that is a real concern for us moving forward,” says Steenhoek. “When you put it within the broader context of an overly subscribed supply chain that is under stress, not only for like containerized shipping, but for bulk vessels as well, then all of a sudden, you insert a significant weather event like Hurricane Ida, and it can essentially add insult to injury.”

Reuters reported Monday that Hurricane Ida damaged a Louisiana grain export elevator owned by Cargill Inc., with reports the elevator “sustained significant damage.”

Flashbacks to Hurricane Katrina

From power outages to barges and ships placed on the sidelines while the area tries to recover, Steenhoek says the longer the system is disrupted, the more impact it could have on U.S. farmers.

“This is something that if the repercussions of this become more long-lasting, you’ll see farmer profitability suffer,” says Steenhoek. “We saw this with Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago, where farmers all of a sudden saw the price that they were offered 900 miles from the affected area in New Orleans, their price declined not because the demand fundamental had changed, not because the quality of the crop was compromised, but just simply because the supply chain wasn’t operating. And certainly, we don’t want to see something like that repeat itself,” he says.

Runaway Barges

As individuals in the impacted areas assess the total damage from Hurricane Ida, Steenhoek says the course of this week will provide clarity on the extent of shipping issues. But he says it’s more than just power outages that could influence the recovery timeline.

“When you think about these facilities, you know, you have the storage facilities, you have the loading apparatus that connects the storage to the actual vessels. We’ve heard reports of barges and other maritime vessels becoming unmoored and getting pushed along the river. And that’s never a welcomed development. And if it runs into a bridge, that could have an impact on that,” he says.

On Monday, that fear became a reality as officials reported 22 barges on the loose with one hitting a bridge in Laffite, La. Leaders believe the bridge is now structurally unsound, but no word on how that could impact barge traffic moving forward.

Cotton Prices Climb as Tropical Storm Swamps Market with Supply Fears

Tue, 17 Aug 2021 17:39:50 GMT

A tropical storm making its way across portions of the U.S. could dampen outlooks for cotton supplies this year. Parts of the southeast are dealing with heavy rains from the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred this week.

Cotton futures reached close to contract highs on Monday as the supply concerns grew about the impact of Tropical Storm could have on cotton production this year, that’s as the storm is predicted to bring rain to some key-cotton growing regions.

The production concerns came just days after USDA made unexpected cuts to its forecast for this year’s cotton crop, trimming both yield and production.

USDA says the U.S. is still expected to be about 17-and a quarter million bales, up 18% from last season.
But when you factor in the low beginning stocks and the protected use levels along with world demand, USDA penciled in a projected price of 80-cents a pound, up 13 cents from last year.

“It’s just been reflecting strong prices that we’ve seen in futures markets recently, and, and even globally the cotton ‘a and x’ prices above a dollar a pound, and all of this is, you know, really indicative of good demand globally,” says Mark Jekanowski, chairman of USDA Outlook Board.

USDA Chief Economist Seth Meyer calling the news about cotton “pretty fantastic”.

Reeling in Lost Bushels

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:11:26 GMT

Scott Flowers pulled off the highway and eased onto a winding county road, anxious to check his crops on an eerily quiet Friday morning. Truck wheels crunched gravel as he rolled alongside one field after another. Cotton; check. Soybeans; check. Peanuts; check. Corn? More than 200 acres of the best corn on his entire farm had vanished overnight.

Flattened by 6" of rain and 50 mph straight-line winds, remnants of Hurricane Harvey, the corn was unbroken but uprooted. Pressed by the time constraints of harvest and with yield on the ground, Flowers weighed his options and ordered a corn reel, intent on recovering bushels. However, the seasoned Mattson, Miss., producer knew he was about to walk a farming tightrope: Salvaging yield with a corn reel comes with a mix of variables.

The Hawkin corn reel features paddles positioned to create narrow clearance and help prevent corn from escaping over the outside dividers. The reel also handles flow evenly and keeps an operator in the cab. After 10 days in transit, four days of assembly and a missing part, Flowers was able to roll into the damaged corn field.

“With a reel, you come behind and go with the flow at 2 mph or 3 mph,” says Joe Small, of Omega Plantation in Clarksdale, Miss. “The reel clears the clutter off the header.”

Flowers estimates the corn reel quadrupled the normal combining time of standing corn. Along with time spent waiting to get the reel in the field, he was forced to hire outside cutters to harvest several soybean fields. “I had to pay to have 500 acres of soybeans cut, although I’d normally have more than enough combines. That’s the way things go sometimes at harvest when a crop is ready to go.”

How did Flowers fare when the bushels came out of the field? After using the corn reel, he still managed to match his farm average on the downed 200 acres: 215 bu. per acre. Essentially, he estimates a 50-bu. loss per acre from the hurricane effect.

“I don’t know if the reel paid for itself when I think about time lost and considering I paid to have some of my beans cut. The lost time and lost bushels were tough,” Flowers explains.

Relying on 50 years of combining experience, Small says loss from downed corn is dependent on rain, wind, variety, stalk breakage point, foliage and how the corn is positioned on the ground. “In my experience, when you run a corn reel through a damaged field, you expect to regain just below 50% to upward of 85% of yield,” he notes.

“I’d tell anyone with downed corn to know a loss is coming. Factor in all the conditions and estimate the overall loss, and then you can figure out if it’s time to bring in a corn reel,” Small advises. “You might not need the reel for 10 years, but you also might need it the very next season.”

“For us, the corn reel was an investment and a little bit of insurance,” Flowers says. “If we get in this situation again, we’ll hook up to the reel and be ready to go.”

What Would 21 Million Bales Mean?

Wed, 27 Jan 2021 20:11:04 GMT

Take away hurricane losses in Georgia and Texas, and the cotton industry could still pull 21 million bales from U.S. farmland in 2017. If that estimate holds, there could be a 5.5 million bale carryover into 2018 and a potential drop in cotton prices.

With uncertainty hovering over the market road ahead, John Robinson, a cotton economist with Texas A&M University Extension, suggests producers should be prepared to take advantage of unexpected rallies and shield themselves from unexpected sell-offs.

Weather was a big player in the 2017 cotton crop, and according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it could be a significant factor again in 2018. NOAA is predicting La Niña conditions from November to May, which could bring an extended period of dry weather.

“Relatively low feed grain and wheat prices suggest to me that 2018 cotton acreage will be similar to 2017, but whether there is a La Niña drought in Q1 and Q2 could be a big wild card for Texas cotton,” Robinson explains. “If there is a La Niña drought, the planted acreage will likely increase, year over year.”

Hurricane Irma inflicted a projected 10% loss on Georgia’s 2.9 million bale crop. Hurricane Harvey’s damage to Texas cotton is still unknown, but Robinson estimates 200,000 bales on the stalk were lost and another 200,000 bales on the stalk were degraded. (In addition, an undetermined quantity of bales was lost or degraded in post-harvest modules.)

As Texas cotton growers face losses from the effects of Harvey, the loss is compounded by a bitter irony: Gulf Coast growers were on the cusp of a fine crop to make up for recent years of struggle.

With Harvey bearing down, Bob and Robby Reed had corn, grain sorghum and rice cut and safely stored. Pickers rolling, the father and son had 500 acres of cotton baled when Harvey smashed into Matagorda County and rolled their last 300 cotton acres on the stalk, severely diminishing yield and affecting quality.

Area yields were exceptional in 2017, with plenty of 3.5 bale yields and some fields over 4 bales per acre. “This is so tough to swallow, but we’ll put the pieces back together,” says Bob Reed. “Nothing heals fast, and it may take years to recover. It’s truly disheartening, but Texas farmers will recover. When you put a seed in the ground and cover it up, you just accept the risk.”

As the puzzle pieces of the cotton market fall into place, Robinson recommends growers stay alert. “If you are going to plant cotton, keep your eyes wide open and watch the expected per unit costs of production you’ll have to cover,” he explains. “In addition, don’t discount the risk of holding on to unsold 2017 bales.”

Hedging or pricing 2018 cotton earlier than usual might be an option prior to a possible midwinter drop. “I think the futures market will weaken between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, so I would encourage folks to think about early hedging of the 2018 crop,” Robinson says.

Carolina Farms Could Face Billions in Losses

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 20:54:26 GMT

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Florence is testing the resolve of farmers in the Carolinas, who could face billions of dollars in agricultural damage while still feeling the sting from Hurricane Matthew almost two years ago.

After last weekend’s high winds and rain that was measured in feet, followed by this week’s rising rivers and standing water in fields, early farm reports are confirming pre-storm worries about losses to tobacco, cotton and corn crops. North Carolina industry leaders remain anxious about whether sweet potatoes and peanuts — grown beneath the soil and susceptible to flooding — will suffer greatly as well.

Matthew hurt eastern North Carolina farmers in 2016, but that storm arrived in October, after most of field crops had been brought in. With Florence, most major crop harvests were still underway or just getting started.

“This hurricane couldn’t have come at a worse time,” North Carolina Farm Bureau President Larry Wooten said,

North Carolina likely won’t have preliminary crop damage estimates until the end of the next week, state Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said. Floodwaters and blocked country roads still were making it difficult for agency agronomists to check out farms. Five of North Carolina’s top six farming counties are within the hardest-hit areas in the eastern part of the state.

“I think it’s easily going to be in the billions of dollars,” Troxler said in an interview Thursday, calling the damage “catastrophic” and “unbelievable.”

In South Carolina, meanwhile, crop damage was estimated at $125 million so far, Gov. Henry McMaster wrote Thursday to the state’s congressional delegation. This week, state Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers visited farmers in damaged areas previously hurt by Matthew and by record flooding in 2015. Weathers said farmers told him that while this year’s cotton crops had been damaged by high winds and peanuts were rotting in soaking soil, no crop was a total loss.

North Carolina farmers had several days’ notice of Florence to harvest what they could and move livestock to higher ground or to market, but there was only so much they could do to prepare.

“Farmers have just faced several years of (low) commodity prices. Matthew came through ... and now we’re faced with Florence,” said Jason Jones, a fifth-generation farmer in Craven County. He said the un-harvested corn on his 1,800-acre (728-hectare) farm is “just about completely flat” and neighboring farms lost all of their tobacco in the fields. Jones said farmers have crop insurance, but it doesn’t cover the total loss.

“For eastern North Carolina farmers, we’re hanging by a thread,” Jones said.

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said he told President Donald Trump during his visit to the state Wednesday that making farmers whole will take more than just a “farm bill.”

“We’re going to have to take a special approach to our farm communities, because they have taken a gut punch,” said Cooper, who planned to view agricultural damage Friday.

North Carolina remains the nation’s largest tobacco producer, with more than 330 million pounds (150 million kilograms) in 2016. Graham Boyd, chief executive of the Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina, estimates losses could total as much as 125 million pounds (57 million kilograms) valued at $250 million to $350 million.

About 40 percent of the tobacco crop remained in the field when Florence arrived, Boyd said, with the highest-quality leaves yet to be harvested. Leaves began “melting on the stalk” — disintegrating when sunny skies followed heavy rains and standing water.

On the 5,000 acres (2,023 hectares) that Craig West’s family farms on near Fremont — about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Raleigh — the biggest moneymaker is the 500 acres (202 hectares) of tobacco. Sixteen inches (41 centimeters) of rain there made it impossible to harvest the leaves still in the fields in time, even if the winds hadn’t battered them so that they were about as appealing and saleable as a bunch of bruised bananas, West said.

“We haven’t had a good growing season anyway. We had a pretty severe drought early on and then it started raining. We had too much rain even before the storm,” West said Thursday. “So we had some disease issues already. It’s magnified since the storm.”

West’s tobacco loss means the farm’s nearly $6 million in gross revenues will be diminished by about 30 percent, he said as workers loaded a machine that sorted tobacco picked weeks ago and then packaged the cured leaves into bundles for shipping.

Livestock losses in North Carolina are estimated at 3.4 million poultry and 5,500 hogs so far, the state Agriculture Department said. Both represent small percentages of the 800 million broilers — chickens raised for meat production — and 9 million hogs raised annually. Troxler said chicken and hog house damage would be significant.

Kim Kornegay’s family farm in Johnston County could lose 40 percent of its cotton crop, farm manager T.J. Sasser said Thursday. Workers there prepared to slog through the mud Friday to try to see what sweet potatoes could be salvaged.

“We’re optimistic, but we’re also realistic,” Kornegay said.

Copyright 2018, Associated Press

Florence Floods Fields, Washing Away Tobacco and Cotton

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 20:54:21 GMT

(Bloomberg) --

The record-setting, still-rising floods unleashed across North Carolina by deadly Hurricane Florence are soaking crops after the storm wreaked havoc on cotton and tobacco.

The number of cotton fields rated in good or excellent condition fell by 14 percentage points to 48 percent as of Sunday from a week earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report Monday. Conditions also declined for corn and soybeans, and agriculture officials in the state cited damage from wind and rains to tobacco plants.

No one is certain just how many tobacco, corn, soybean, cotton, peanut and sweet potato fields are still under water or experiencing flooding, said Lynda Loveland, spokeswoman for North Carolina Farm Bureau. It will take several days to properly assess crop damage as the water still needs to recede, she said in an email.

There’s “just too much devastation to get a good handle on it right now, ” Jack Scoville, senior market analyst at the Price Futures Group, said by email.

Blown Away

Kim K. LeQuire, co-owner of Kornegay Family Farms and Produce, said the operation in Princeton, North Carolina had seen at least 14 inches (36 centimeters) of rain as of Sunday and was still getting more showers. Some leaves on tobacco plants were blown off their stalks amid the strong winds and were lying in puddle-filled fields. While about 70 percent of her farm’s tobacco crop had been harvested before the hurricane, the damage affects some of their best-quality supply.

Fields of sweet potatoes were also waterlogged, but she said the root vegetable is a hardy crop that may be able to withstand the rough conditions if soils drain soon.

“There’s definitely going to be some issues, but I’m not going to call the 2018 North Carolina sweet potato crop a wash,” LeQuire said.

Most of the bolls on about 2,000 acres of cotton plants had not yet opened, but the fiber on the ones that had were drenched by rain and will be very poor, she said.

Alan Underwood, president of Texas-based Underwood Cotton Co., said for the state’s cotton there’s “going to be a reduction in yield.” Water pulls out the oil in the fiber, reducing the yield and will also “be detrimental to the quality,” he said.

Some of the counties harder hit by Florence are located on the southern end of North Carolina’s largest tobacco growing region, said Matthew Vann, assistant professor and tobacco extension specialist at North Carolina State University. Other large tobacco-growing counties also suffered damage, but not the amount of flooding that’s being reported further south, he said.

“There is a fairly wide range in terms of severity when you look specifically at the tobacco growing regions,” said Vann, noting it’s too early to estimate total losses.

Copyright 2018, Bloomberg

Southeast Still Recovering from Hurricanes

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 18:59:02 GMT

While midwest farmers battle harvest rains, in the southeast, farmers are fighting hurricanes again this year. As ag producers in the storms’ path work to overcome the constant battering of mother nature, it’s clear, even these storms can’t stop an industry with so much grit and determination.

AgDay-TV host Clinton Griffiths returns to the region to remember the trials of the season and why some families are finding a reason to be thankful this during the Thanksgiving holiday.

House GOP Unveils $81Billion Disaster Relief for Hurricanes, Wildfires

Sun, 15 Nov 2020 18:25:17 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans on Monday unveiled an $81 billion disaster aid package to help hurricane-ravaged communities and states hit by wildfires, almost double the amount requested by President Donald Trump.

GOP leaders promised a vote this week on the measure, which would bring the total provided in response to this year’s devastating round of hurricanes to more than $130 billion - exceeding the cost to taxpayers of Hurricane Katrina.

The emergency aid would provide $26 billion for community development block grants, which would help Florida, Texas and the Caribbean rebuild, along with Western states recovering from wildfires. There’s funding for prevention of future flooding, highway repairs and help for small businesses. There’s almost $28 billion for the government’s chief disaster aid account, $4 billion of which could be used to help cash-strapped governments such as Puerto Rico’s stay afloat.

“We have a commitment to our fellow citizens that are in the midst of major rebuilding efforts,” said Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J., who sponsored the measure. “They deserve our continued support, and we must provide the necessary resources for them to recover from these emergencies.”

The package also would provide $2.6 billion for farm disasters. Florida lawmakers have said citrus crops in their state have been suffering.

“It’s a big win for Florida’s agriculture,” said Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla.

Last month, Trump requested $44 billion, his third emergency request since hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria slammed the Gulf Coast and Caribbean. The request sparked howls from lawmakers from hurricane-hit states.

“While it was not everything, it was further than the administration proposed,” Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said Monday.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.

Corn Prices Sink on Bleak Export Outlook After Hurricane Ida Crashes Into Gulf Coast

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 12:43:51 GMT

Hurricane Ida’s impact on exports out of the Gulf Coast continues to unfold. Two key grain elevators along the Gulf took a direct hit from the hurricane, but that’s only part of the problem. Barges are also on the loose, crashing into one another and piling up. And power outages are expected to last nearly a month.

Reuters reported Wednesday that grain shippers on the U.S. Gulf Coast reported more damage from Hurricane Ida to their terminals on Wednesday. Cargill Inc. confirmed damage to a second facility, while power outages across southern Louisiana kept all others shuttered. And as September welcomes what’s typically the start to a busy soybean export season , hiccups are already underway.

The export concerns did partially pressure prices this week, with Brian Splitt of AgMarket.Net pointing out on Tuesday, corn futures took out the last couple of week’s lows.

“So, the market has not only gotten the idea that the crops got a little bit bigger, but we’re also seeing concern about the ability to export out of the Gulf and how long it might take to bring everything back online now,” Splitt told Clinton Griffiths on AgDay. “I think they’ll probably overdo it. This is probably an opportunity for some bull spreading in the market right now.”

As the recovery continues along the Gulf Coast, Splitt says the Gulf is a key export port, and as soybeans enter a key export time frame, he thinks companies will put in overtime to make needed repairs.

“I do believe that’s probably one of the components of why these ports will not be down as long as what some are advertising. And it’s probably one of those things where maybe you say, ‘Hey, it’ll take us four weeks, and then you’re going to shoot for two and under promise and over deliver. But I think this time of the year also, we are getting to that point where we’re going to have a fresh crop available, and the exporters want to be able to get out of the country quickly.”