Hurricane Irma made landfall in Florida over the weekend, bringing challenges to agriculture in the state.
Irma hit the Florida Keys as a Category 3 hurricane and was downgraded as the storm moved north.
Damage reports are starting to roll in. Farms further south and west suffered more damage, according to Farm Journal’s MILK.
Dairy farmers were preparing before Irma made landfall. Some farms made it through the storm with limited damage and others suffered great losses, Farm Journal’s MILK reported.
Florida Farm Bureau Federation President John Hoblick told AgriTalk that farmers and ranchers are assessing the damage and the organization is working to determine where and what the needs are.
Florida is the top U.S. produce state and accounts for nearly 10 percent of the nation’s land dedicated to fresh fruits and vegetables, according to government data.
“Our fruit should be ripe starting in another two or three months, so it’s starting to gather pretty good size and put weight on the limbs,” Hoblick said about the citrus crop. “We’ll have a lot of limb damage on that, which takes a year or two to really bounce back from that.”
Hoblick noted peanuts were on the ground and cotton was beginning to open, and Irma likely impacted those crops.
The full extent of the damage of Hurricane Irma is still unknown.
“I am confident Floridians will pull together and help each other through the aftermath of this storm,” Hoblick said in a statement.