Florida freeze pushes early harvest

AccuWeather

A record November cold snap in North Florida is forcing citrus growers in Monticello to pick citrus early while vegetable producers take a wait-and-see approach on freeze impacts, with a warmup on the way.

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00:00being a farmer in the south requires that you can pivot from year to year,

00:06whether it's hurricanes or unusually early freezes, they've got to be able to

00:10accommodate and get into their fields to save their crops. Here in Monticello,

00:14Florida, this particular farm, the Florida Georgia Citrus Farm, is pulling

00:18their fruit just a little bit earlier than normal because of that cold snap

00:22that we got this week. This year for us, the stat semis have just fell off the

00:26cliff. Instead of having just a little wave of alternate year bearing this

00:32year, the stat semis just really, really just fell off the cliff. So this is a

00:36really bad off year for the stat semis. And it's not just the citrus production

00:40that can be impacted by this wide range of wild weather we can get here in the

00:44south. It's also the vegetable crops. Those are a little harder to protect

00:48during these freezing conditions. And really, the farmers don't know if

00:53they've sustained any damage until they can get into the fields. There's not much

00:57that can be done from a freeze protection standpoint like you can do

01:00with the fruit crops. And it does become a bit of a wait and see. In that North

01:05Florida region, you may see growers with peppers, squash, carrots, even tomatoes.

01:11They'll be looking to see how low those temperatures go, how long they stay at

01:15those freezing levels. And then as soon as the temperatures rise above freezing, get

01:20back into the field and start assessing any impact. This November cold snap set a

01:25bevy of records across the state of Florida, some records that stood for over

01:29six decades. Good news is warmer weather is on the horizon. Farmers are hoping that

01:34we have no more of these unscheduled freezing conditions or snaps between now and

01:39the end of the year. Reporting in Monticello, Florida, I'm Leslie Hudson for

01:43AccuWeather.

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