Freeze damage in the millions - Current losses may only be tip of the iceberg

Prolonged low temperatures have caused significant damage to local agriculture.

While breakdowns by individual community may not be available, industry and county total economic damage figures are in the eight-figure range.

“It will definitely be in the tens of millions. How high up in the tens of millions remains to be seen,” said Eric Larson, the executive director of the San Diego County Farm Bureau, on the countywide damage.

The California Avocado Commission estimates that losses could range between 20 percent and 30 percent of the 400 million pounds which had been projected to be harvested in California during 2007. That damage only accounts for current-year losses, since if trees fail to bud the crop for future years will also be affected. “The current damage in some cases is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Fallbrook grower Charley Wolk, a past California Avocado Commission chair and the current chair of the Hass Avocado Board.

Measured temperatures dropped to as low as 16 degrees in Bonsall and 18 degrees in De Luz at Ross Lake. County Supervisor Bill Horn, who lives in Valley Center, noted that his home at the top of a mountain saw a temperature of 21 degrees while the temperature elsewhere in the area fell to 14 degrees.

“It’s not so much how low the temperature got,” Larson said. “It sustained that temperature for such a long period of time.”

Produce, nuts, and flowers can survive low temperatures for short periods. “Avocados can survive a little bit of cold, down to about 24 degrees, if it’s not too long,” said Horn, who grows avocados and citrus on his grove.

“Once that temperature got below freezing, it stayed there,” Larson said. “The duration can have a greater impact than the actual temperature.”

Horn and his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors oversee the county’s Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures, which will be working with farmers as well as state and Federal agencies on matters related to the damage. No Board of Supervisors resolution was needed to have San Diego County declared as a disaster area by Governor Schwarzenegger; on January 19 Schwarzenegger added San Diego and five other counties to the state of emergency list, bringing the total number of counties to 16 out of the state’s 58. Total statewide damage may reach $1 billion.

“I guess we fared better than farther north from us,” Horn said.

On January 20 state Secretary of Agriculture A.G. Kawamura and State Senator Dennis Hollingsworth took a tour of northern San Diego County to view the damage. After meeting at the Farm bureau office in Escondido, where about two dozen farmers were invited to meet with Kawamura and Hollingsworth, the participants of the tour visited Al Stehly’s grove in Valley Center and the Euro American Propagators nursery in Bonsall. Hollingsworth, who lives in Murrieta, also toured Wolk’s grove in Fallbrook.

“I just sort of appreciate it that they took the time to come,” said Jerry Church, a partner in Euro American Propagators.

The members of the tour also included Mike Mellano, the vice-president in charge of production for the Bonsall nursery Mellano and Company, and Janet Kister, a former San Diego County Farm Bureau president who along with her husband owns Sunlet Nursery in Fallbrook.

“The ones that we had indoors are fine,” Kister said. “But we did experience some damage on our outdoor plants.”

Unlike the avocado industry, whose guacamole and other products for Super Bowl Sunday have already been harvested, the floral industry was preparing for the Valentine’s Day peak period. “We had some specific plants that were actually pre-sold for Valentine’s Day, and those plants are not going to make it for Valentine’s Day,” Kister said.

Kister isn’t sure if those plants will be ready for any subsequent event. “There are some plants that we know won’t come back,” she said. “At this point it’s too early to tell what we’re going to be able to salvage.”

Church estimates that his nursery lost about 5,000 trays, or 20 percent of his stock. Since Euro American Propagators provides mostly hybrid cuttings rather than seeds, the cost of his plants are about three times that as for similar seedlings.

The temperature reached 20 degrees at Euro American Propagators. “It’s more than they can handle,” Church said. “That length of time was more than they can handle. But that’s farming.”

Euro American Propagators specializes in flowery annuals. “Most of our products are exported outside of San Diego, so it brings a lot of money back into town,” Church said.

“It’s definitely a very significant freeze,” Mellano said.

The damage from grower to grower varied. “There were a lot of micro, mini-micro situations going on in individual groves,” said Fallbrook Chamber of Commerce executive director Bob Leonard. “Some groves it’s complete devastation.”

Fallbrook grower Jim Russell had 70 Hass avocado trees. “I lost all my avocados. The wind blew them off two weeks ago. The fruit that didn’t get blown off froze,” he said.

Russell also grows citrus, macadamia nuts, and gourds. “We’ve certainly lost some citrus,” he said. “We may have lost some blossoms off the macadamias.”

The gourds are between growing cycles, so Russell doubts that his gourd crop was damaged.

Tom Cooper’s grove in Fallbrook includes about 400 macadamia trees. He is unsure of damage. “We don’t know yet. We had one night at 23 degrees, and if they’re below 27 they can have damage but it sometimes takes two or three months to notice the damage,” he said.

Cooper explained that the damage is to the tissue around the tree’s trunk. “It kills them by terminating the tissue,” he said.

Bob Lucy is a partner in Del Rey Avocado Company, which is a packing house in Fallbrook. “Probably 20 to 25 percent of the crop is lost,” Lucy said of the industry-wide figure.

Lucy also owns a 12-acre avocado grove in Bonsall which lost about 80 percent of its crop and a 40-acre grove in Bonsall which lost an estimated 50 percent of the crop. He noted the need to check the stems, as some fruit may be damaged and will not harvest properly. “It’s going to be high,” Lucy said of the damage.

Larson noted that the avocado crop suffered the most damage. “They have a low wind tolerance, and there’s a very limited number of things growers can do to protect them,” he said. “The stem that connects the fruit to the tree freezes through fairly easily.”

Citrus groves fared somewhat better. “Citrus trees are definitely much more cold-tolerant than are avocados,” Larson said. “Citrus fruit is protected by the sugar in it.”

Because the sugar provides protection, lemons incurred the most significant damage among citrus.

“My oranges and my tangelos and my kumquats, they’re all fine,” Horn said.

Horn’s avocados didn’t escape such damage. “Where I live in Valley Center a lot of groves are just burnt,” he said.

Horn estimated that he lost about half of his avocados. “It’s going to be about three weeks before I can assess the damage,” he said.

For Horn this is his third freeze in 35 years as a grower. “This is probably the worst. I’ve never seen it this cold ever before,” he said.

“The cold jumped around,” Wolk said. “That’s why the damage jumped around.”

Wolk noted that most freezes have a frost line in which damage can be seen. He also noted that affected trees will defoliate, which will force pruning. “You not only get lost revenue, but you get more expense,” he said.

“The damage is starting to show on the trees more,” Leonard said.

“As time will play out, we’ll see what happens,” Mellano said. “There are some things we’re concerned about, and we need to see what happens.”

The floral industry can take some preventive measures on outdoor plants such as continuous irrigation. “We took protective measures to protect our plants, and in most cases that worked,” Kister said.

Kister noted, however, that the wind often kept that protective water away from plants and caused damage. “We tried our best to protect all of our plants, but it was just too cold for too long,” Kister said.

While flower growers will likely lose the Valentine’s Day peak period, Wolk believes that the industry will be able to meet demand for the Cinco de Mayo peak period. “We’ll have fruit to supply the market,” Wolk said.

“Where you’re going to see the shortage in the California crop is as you get further into the year, and I think the offshore producers will fill that void,” Wolk said. “Fruit will be available.”

Individual growers may not be so lucky. Russell acknowledges that farming includes bad years due to frost, drought, or infestation. “That’s part of the process, unfortunately,” he said.

“We’re just kind of licking our wounds. That’s agriculture for you,” Horn said.

The state of emergency proclamation allows for low-interest loans from the Farm Service Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Farm Service Agency provides emergency loans to help producers recover from production and physical losses due to drought, flooding, and other natural disasters. Emergency loan funds may be used to restore or replace property, pay all or part of production costs associated with the disaster year, pay essential family living expenses, reorganize the farming operation, and refinance certain debts. Eligibility is limited to those with at least a 30 percent loss in crop production or a physical loss to livestock, livestock products, real estate, or chattel property, and the loan program only funds losses not covered by other replacement sources such as crop insurance.

“They’re not grants and they tend to be a percentage rather than full recovery,” Leonard said. “Governmental assistance isn’t really very much compared to their out-of-pocket losses.”

Church added that the loans are mostly for farmers who lost the entirety of their crop.

“We’re very hopeful that we don’t see a year like this again,” Kister said.