Hurricane Helene had an estimated $6.46 billion impact on Georgia’s agriculture industry, according to preliminary reports announced by Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper.
Of the total impact, the preliminary direct losses to farm families and forest landowners reached nearly $3.2 billion.
“We have a long road ahead, but we will not stop working until we’ve delivered the relief Georgia farm families desperately need,” Harper wrote in a post on X.
Milton’s destruction: Florida, on the other hand, is just beginning to project the estimated damage of Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton, which struck the state Wednesday night.
Economists at the American Farm Bureau Federation anticipate that vegetables will experience the most losses at $1.6 billion, followed by fruit and tree nuts, which are expected to see about $1.3 billion in damages.
In total, AFBF estimates over $5.7 billion in damages to Florida’s agricultural sector. The estimates rely on 2022 U.S. Census of Agriculture data along with power outage data from Thursday.
Phosphates may be spared: Josh Linville, director of fertilizer at StoneX, told RFD-TV Thursday morning that Milton's sudden turn south meant that Tampa managed to avoid the worst flooding and damage.
Slightly more than 60% of the phosphate fertilizer produced in North America comes from Florida, Linville said. That includes mining, processing and production facilities clustered near Tampa.
“Too early to know for sure but looks like phosphate production dodged a huge bullet,” Linville said on X.
Major phosphate manufacturer The Mosaic Co. said it's checking on its employees' safety. "When conditions allow, we'll begin assessing the impacts on our operations," the company said in a brief statement.
CropLife CEO: Final herbicide strategy has ‘a lot of wins’
EPA’s final herbicide strategy, developed in an effort to protect threatened and endangered species, is a lot better than the draft, CropLife America President and CEO Alexandra Dunn says on Agri-Pulse Newsmakers this week.
The initial strategy was “unworkable,” Dunn said, but the final version “has a lot of practical aspects to it,” including opportunities for growers to get credit for on-farm practices, erosion control and mitigation efforts.
Dunn estimated there would be four or five crop protection products that will have Endangered Species Act requirements in 2025.
“It’s a really important point for growers to know that there’s not a tsunami of ESA requirements coming their way,” she said.
“They’re going to have time to get used to these requirements and to prepare for them.”
Hear more from Dunn plus panelists Ashley Smith from Torrey Advisory Group and Paul Winters from Clean Fuels Alliance America discussing biofuel policy on today’s Newsmakers episode.
Attorney for North Carolina farm disputes state’s conclusion that heat killed farmworker
An autopsy report of a North Carolina farmworker shows he did not die of heat exposure, the attorney for Barnes Farming Corp. in Spring Hope, North Carolina, said Thursday.
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The report released by the North Carolina Medical Examiner's Office instead shows that José Arturo González Mendoza, who died while harvesting sweet potatoes, “passed away from a pre-existing condition and not from heat conditions,” a news release from W. James Payne Law in Shallotte, North Carolina, said.
The company is contesting $187,500 in fines from the North Carolina Labor Department. Barnes Farming lawyer James Payne said the state had made its conclusion without all the facts. "The Barnes family and farm have been devastated by this tragic incident and have extended their sympathies to the family of Mr. González Mendoza. This event has hit many people hard," Payne said.
Mexican protest adding to rail service delays
A protest in southeastern Mexico is adding to congestion challenges hindering transport of U.S. grain into the nation, according to the Agriculture Department’s latest grain transportation report.
Residents of the Mexican community Chapulco are blockading Ferrosur over a past derailment, which the USDA report says “has led to a backlog of grain waiting to move from Veracruz to livestock producers in Central Mexico.”
Why is this important? Mexican rail networks have been plagued with delays over the past year and the latest disruptions will further hamper harvest-season exports of U.S. grain and other products. Mexico was the second largest importer of U.S. agricultural products last year, including large amounts of corn, soybeans, wheat, soybean meal and pork products, according to USDA.
Tractor and combine sales down amid rural economic slump
Sales of combines fell more than 19% and sales of tractors dropped 40% in September compared to the same month last year, the Association of Equipment Manufacturers said Thursday.
A total of 16,961 farm tractors were sold in September, a drop from 20,980 during the same month last year, according to AEM. Combine sales, meanwhile, fell from 894 to 530.
Take note: Low commodity prices and high input costs have given U.S. farmers less cash to spend, a likely cause for the decline in farm equipment sales.
Rebekah Alvey, Lydia Johnson and Noah Wicks contributed to this report.
