USDA disaster designation to assist farms impacted by May freeze event

Thirty-one counties across New York State, including Orleans County, have been designated as a primary natural disaster area by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) following the late May frost/freeze event. These designations mean that impacted farmers in those areas may be eligible for assistance, including emergency loans, from the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA). The Department of Agriculture and Markets requested the Disaster Designation from the USDA through a joint letter with other states that are a part of the Northeastern Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NEASDA).

State Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball said, “In the days following the unseasonable frost, we visited and spoke with a number of our growers across the State to understand the extent of the damage facing the industry. Many of them hadn’t seen frost conditions that late in the season in decades. We have been working with many partners since May to put together our request for a disaster designation and to secure the assistance needed to help our growers overcome this challenging time. We encourage our farms to take advantage of the emergency loans and to continue to report losses to lessen the impacts of this damaging severe weather event.”

A disaster declaration is based on reporting of crop loss to the federal Farm Service Agency. The USDA declared 31 counties in New York as primary natural disaster areas and an additional 24 counties, including Monroe and Genesee counties, as contiguous disaster counties. Farmers in those counties who were impacted by the severe weather event may be considered for FSA emergency loans, provided eligibility requirements are met.

Farmers will have eight months to apply for emergency loans and can do so with their local FSA office (https://www.fsa.usda.gov/state-offices/New-York/index).

In addition to the USDA Disaster Designation, the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets has also issued a Crop Loss Declaration to help farm wineries impacted by the May freeze event sustain their business operations. The emergency declaration allows farm winery owners, licensed by the New York State Liquor Authority, to temporarily source grapes or juice from outside of New York through December 31, 2023, while still maintaining their New York farm winery status and enabling them to continue to manufacture or sell wine produced from out‐of‐state grapes or juice for the impacted varietals.

Farm wineries can find information and the application at https://agriculture.ny.gov. The deadline to apply for the exemption is October 31, 2023, and the deadline to purchase out-of-state grapes or juice is December 31, 2023. The Department will be hosting an industry-wide webinar on Wednesday, September 13, 2023, to provide information on the application process and to answer any questions farm wineries may have.

According to the Department’s Division of Emergency Management and Cornell Cooperative Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN), during the reporting period of May 15 to 25, 2023, New York State experienced extremely low temperatures, which resulted in frost damage to a number of crops throughout many regions of New York State. Reports of damage included vineyards in the Southern Tier, Finger Lakes and Hudson Valley, and other commodities, such as apples, peaches and other stone fruit, and berries in several other regions, including the North Country, Central New York, Capital Region, and Hudson Valley areas.

The Department is also assessing the impact of crop loss for farm cideries.

The USDA FSA recommends that farmers affected by the freeze should document their conditions (pictures and video) and any losses. Farmers can file a CCC- 576 (Notice of Loss) with their local USDA FSA.

New York is the third largest grape producer and the third largest wine producer in the country. According to the New York Wine & Grape Foundation, these growers generate a $6.65 billion economic impact for New York State. There are 471 wineries in New York, growing a variety of grapes on 35,000 acres.

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