Florida Dairy Industry Rebuilds After $50 Million In Hurricane Losses

Source(s):
Pat Miller opmiller@ifas.ufl.edu, (863) 763-6469
Calvin Covington ccovington@southeastmilk.org, (800) 598-7866
Bob Rydzewski (863) 763-4673 ext. 106
Red Larson ldi@okeechobee.com, (863) 467-2841

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OKEECHOBEE, Fla.—With some farms still covered by piles of debris after the worst hurricane season in a century, it will probably be close to two years before things are “back to normal” for Florida’s dairy industry, a University of Florida extension agent says.

Pat Miller, Okeechobee County extension director with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, said damage to the dairy industry his county — the largest milk-producing county in the U.S. Southeast — exceeded $5.25 million in lost production. Total statewide losses topped $50 million.

He said the Federal Emergency Management Administration declared the county a disaster after three of the four hurricanes. Statewide, 34 of the 36 Florida counties with dairy farms are now eligible for FEMA assistance.

Damage ranged from collapsing barns and flooding to lost animals. Statewide, at least 700 dairy cows were killed by the storms. Hurricane Frances caused all fluid milk processing plants in the state to close from one to three days. In Okeechobee County, 350,000 gallons of milked had to be dumped when farmers lost power.

Miller said milk production in the county is still down by about 10 percent, and production could drop further as more cows are culled due to hurricane-related injuries and stress.

Calvin Covington, chief executive officer of Southeast Milk Inc. in Belleview, Fla., a marketing cooperative with about 300 members in Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, said almost every farmer in the cooperative was directly or indirectly affected by at least one of the hurricanes.

“Consumers did experience some interruption at the retail level, but working with the state’s milk processors, the milk pipeline was restocked as fast as possible,” Covington said. “The hurricanes did not increase the price of milk paid to dairy farmers nor did it increase the price of milk charged to processing plants.”

Miller said problems began to mount when the storms passed and dairy operators were without power. Generators at some dairies were designed for short power outages and helped maintain primary functions such as milking cows and cooling milk.

However, when power outages stretched into days and weeks, additional generators were needed to support these critical functions as well as other needs such as pumping water and operating feed mills. Miller said extension personnel in Okeechobee County and other counties helped provide these generators.

“What Frances didn’t destroy, Jeanne came along and finished it off,” said Bob Rydzewski, vice president of McArthur Farms Inc. in Okeechobee, Fla., who estimates losses on their four properties are between $5 million and $6 million.

“After Jeanne, we had cattle trapped under the feeding barns when they came down,” said Red Larson, owner and president of Larson Dairy Inc. in Okeechobee. “We had to take a chain saw to cut the rafters to get the cattle out. Many animals were dead and others were injured so extensively that they had to be destroyed.”

In some cases, dairy owners were not able to get to their animals, or bury them, due to problems such as flooding. Larson said they relied on Okeechobee County extension personnel who worked with other state agencies to remove dead animals from their property.

In addition to experiencing cattle losses during the hurricanes, dairy owners are still losing cattle because many animals are severely stressed. Dairy cattle must be kept cool and calm for optimum milk production, as well as good health. Downed barns and trees means less shade for the cattle, while power outages prevented fans and misting systems from keeping the animals cool.

“This trauma in their environment has caused the death of cattle statewide, and we expect dairy operators will continue to lose cattle from stress for months to come,” Miller said.

Production loss is another problem that dairy operators are facing, Miller said. Milk production at some dairies decreased by as much as 60 percent 24 hours after the storms. Production at Larson Dairy is down by 9,000 gallons a day, while McArthur Farms said their remaining dairy cow production is down 15 to 20 percent from normal.

Although the dairy industry was hit hard, the industry is working to rebuild, Miller said. Many dairy producers are working with local UF extension offices and other government agencies that offer assistance — and waiting in line for building contractors to begin repairs. Above all, Miller said, they are working to make the cattle comfortable to restore milk production in the state.

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Posted: November 3, 2004


Category: UF/IFAS



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