Farmers hit by freeze to get help

The U.S. Department of Agriculture declared a disaster for most of Florida's counties following the string of freezing weather that battered crops from berries to corn last month.

The declaration opens the way for federal assistance in the form of low-interest loans.

The federal department determined that farmers in 60 of the state's 67 counties suffered at least a 30 percent loss during the blast of Arctic air that sent thermometers plunging below freezing through the state and reached into the vegetable-growing region south of Lake Okeechobee.

The counties excluded from the declaration are in the Panhandle, where farming is limited in January.

Farmers are tallying the loss from the freezes, and a dollar amount likely won't be known for months, though agriculture officials are confident it will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, said Liz Compton, spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

A more accurate determination will come after farmers sell their surviving crops or those that were replanted, she said.

Farmers will have to apply for the loans and must meet a minimum loss to qualify.

Although any help is appreciated, the declaration may not cover the loss to eastern Hillsborough's berry farmers, said Ted Campbell, director of the Florida Strawberry Growers Association.

The parade of freezes - 11 consecutive nights in and around Plant City - erased the month of January for the berry farmers, he said.

"Typically, that's one of the most profitable months. That's a huge hole in their year," he said. That loss is impossible to quantify when applying for assistance, Campbell said.

The USDA uses a 30 percent loss to determine whether a county qualifies, but individual farmers usually require a higher loss to get assistance.

"Whether individual famers qualify, that's case by case. You really have to be hurt to get assistance," Campbell said.