Agriculture's losses could be 'biggest in history'

Storm damage to Florida's ranches and farms could top $2 billion.

By Christopher Sherman
Sentinel Staff Writer

September 13, 2004

FORT MEADE -- From the inundated cattle pastures of Polk County to the shredded ferneries in Volusia, hurricanes Charley and Frances may have handed Florida's agricultural industry its most costly double shot ever: Preliminary estimates put losses at more than $2 billion.

"It probably is the biggest in history," said Charles Bronson, Florida's agriculture and consumer services commissioner. By comparison, Hurricane Andrew's damage to agriculture totaled about $1.4 billion, he said.

Growers, ranchers and farmers have been working around the clock to care for animals, repair fences and reconstruct buildings while keeping a wary eye on the weather to see if this grim hurricane season will ever end.

The already staggering numbers are still growing. Losses were $200 million for citrus, $50 million for vegetable growers, and more than $400 million for nurseries. And even before Frances arrived, 63 percent of Florida ranches had been significantly damaged.

Splashing through rain-saturated pastures near Fort Meade, Gretchen Peterson, a Polk County rancher, runs off a list of the impacts on the cattle industry.

This is the time of year when ranchers sell their cows at market -- yet five of 10 auction houses in Florida were closed last week because of Hurricane Frances.

Meanwhile, cows graze in swamped pastures with less nutritious grass to eat and more mosquitoes to chase them, driving down their weight. In a business that pays by the pound, that's trouble.

"They're seeing economic loss every day that water is here," said Jim Handley, spokesman for the Florida Cattlemen's Association.

About 80 percent of the state's 1.2 million head of cattle has been affected to some extent by the two storms. Osceola and Polk counties are two of Florida's biggest cattle producers and the two Central Florida counties hardest hit by Charley.

When the markets reopen, it will be hard getting the tractor-trailers into the pastures to collect the cows. In addition, many of the loading pens have been damaged. At market there will be a glut, forcing cows to spend more time in holding pens where again they lose weight.

"Everybody's lost three or four weeks of selling, and that's put a big hurt on us," Peterson said. Her family is sitting on 1,800 to 1,900 calves they need to sell.

"A lot of people are finding out insurance doesn't cover fence repair," Peterson added. Her family has already put out about $8,000 to repair fences around their 19,000 acres.

The catastrophic losses are revealing the patchwork of insurance available to farmers.

For example, vegetable farmers can get coverage for plant or harvest losses from a freeze, but not a hurricane. Adding up the fumigation, fertilization, drip tape and plastic, just getting a field ready to plant peppers or other vegetables in Florida costs about $2,000 per acre, said Ray Gilmer, spokesman for the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association. Many growers typically plant just after Labor Day but were waiting for Frances to pass. Now the fields are wrecked.

"All of that's ruined," he said. "Now you start from scratch."

There's no crop insurance for the state's sod industry. David Dymond, president of the Florida Sod Growers Cooperative and general manager of H&H Sod Co. in Osceola, has about 100 acres of sod under water and more he can't harvest because it's too wet.

If water stands too long, the grass will die. What survives will suffer from stunted growth and deteriorited quality.

"You can't mow, you can't spray, you can't do the maintenance necessary to keep it looking good," Dymond said.

Insurance will cover a fernery's equipment and buildings, but not its plants or the structures that shade them.

That leaves Erik Hagstrom of Pierson questioning his future. His family's company, Albim Hagstrom & Son Inc., was founded in 1928 and is run by the third generation. Erik's generation is awaiting its turn, "which might be short-lived," he said.

The Hagstrom ferneries lost a third of their 450 acres and half their structures. An extension service representative surveying the damage to ferneries told Hagstrom that 60 to 70 percent of structures and crops were lost.

It will take a year and a half before growers can make new cuts, Hagstrom said. Meanwhile, the business is nearly paralyzed by the loss of power.

"There's nowhere to turn for help," he said.

Farmers and ranchers are used to taking care of themselves, but that doesn't make it any easier to get through such a rough stretch.

"There's a tremendous amount of stress on people," said the Cattlemen's Association's Handley. Like many other Floridians, ranchers and farmers have suffered damage to their homes, but throw on top of that the severe blow to their livelihood.

"It's kind of overwhelming."

Christopher Sherman can be reached at csherman@orlandosentinel.com or 863-422-3395.

Ranchers get to work to clean up the mess

By Christopher Sherman
Sentinel Staff Writer

September 13, 2004

FORT MEADE -- The engine on Gretchen Peterson's Ford F350 Super Duty pickup roars, the wheels spin, and it rocks a few inches forward. Peterson shifts into reverse, the engine roars, mud flies, the truck rocks back and sinks ever so slightly.

The Polk County rancher smiles and shakes her head. Getting stuck in the mud is just another risk of Florida ranching in the rain-soaked days following hurricanes Charley and Frances.©

The past month has been the toughest stretch on Florida agriculture anyone can remember. But Peterson, 43, wouldn't trade the long hours or manual labor.

"It's a family thing," she said of ranching. "You just stick together and pull together." Since Charley and Frances devastated Polk, Peterson's 14-year-old son has become an expert with a chain saw. The boyfriend of one of her husband's daughters came up from West Palm Beach to help and is quickly learning the labor side of the cattle business.

Peterson's two brothers both went into her father's sand-mining business, and her sister became a speech pathologist. But the self-proclaimed tomboy was always drawn to the outdoors and animals, so she took over her father's "hobby."

She and her husband, Tony Peterson, run their own 500 acres of pasture in Polk as well as the family's 14,000 acres in the Green Swamp. Combined, they have about 2,000 cows and 1,800 to 1,900 calves.

While Charley's destruction was still fresh, the Petersons hit the road with spotlights and chain saws to begin the massive task of repairing fences. "Being a farmer, you don't have the luxury of leaving," she said.

Her Lake Wales neighborhood of Country Oaks is now jokingly called Fallen Oaks, but little time has been spent at home. The family worked around the clock for about three days after Charley, driving fence lines and cutting trees. They haven't slowed much since.

Peterson even adopted Gov. Jeb Bush's policy of fining anyone who mentions Ivan, the next hurricane threatening Florida.

"I don't think any of us have the heart to watch the Weather Channel now."

Christopher Sherman can be reached at csherman@orlandosentinel.com or 863-422-3395.