SWM Fruit Growers Qualify For Assistance Following Spring Freezes

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued a disaster designation for Berrien, Cass, and Ottawa counties. MSU Extension fruit educator Mark Longstroth tells WSJM News it’s due to freezes that hit in the spring, damaging a variety of crops in the area.

“We had a couple of freezes in April that damaged some of the early blooming fruit crops, and just about the time that peaches were in bloom, we had a hard freeze that took an awful lot of the peaches, it took an awful lot of the plums and cherries, virtually all of the dark cherries.”

Longstroth says strawberries were damaged, and there was some blueberry damage as well. The USDA’s disaster designation makes farm operators eligible to be considered for certain types of assistance from the Farm Service Agency, including emergency loans. Longstroth says there are some growers who could use aid.

“I would think if you went out and asked a whole bunch of the peach growers what this year was like, they’d say it was a disaster.”

In June, Governor Gretchen Whitmer sent a letter to Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue requesting a disaster designation for counties impacted by severe weather. The request was followed by a bipartisan letter of support from members of Michigan’s Congressional delegation. The request was granted this week.