A report from the University of Florida says Hurricane Milton, a Category 3 hurricane, when it made landfall on October 9, 2024, hit more than 5.7 million acres of agricultural land. Over 68 percent of those acres were grazing land.
Across all commodity groups, approximately 62 percent of impacted acreage experienced low-intensity weather conditions. Another 38 percent of the acreage experienced moderate-intensity weather conditions, and less than one percent experienced high-intensity weather conditions. Preliminary estimates of production losses for Florida’s agricultural producers from Milton are between $190.4 million and $642.7 million.
The commodity groups hit hardest in terms of production losses were vegetables, melons, and potatoes, followed by greenhouse-nursery producers and animals and animal products. Damage to infrastructure included homes, livestock buildings, watering points, perennial plantings, conservation structures, honeybee boxes, fences, farm equipment, and irrigation systems. There was a lot of damage to stored agricultural inputs like fertilizer, feed, and animal medicines.
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