USDA approves disaster declaration for Florida crops

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

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 still 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.

Individual farmers need to apply for the loans and will have to meet a minimum loss to qualify.

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

The parade of freezes - 11 consecutive nights 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.

While the federal agriculture department uses a 30 percent loss to determine if a county qualifies, individual farmers usually need 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.