2.5 million dollars on the line tonight ladies.... :wink: Spring came early ( about 45 days early for the first time in my 35 year career) and decided to give us 88 degree days the last month and a half.... Normally by Feb. 15 we are done with cool weather (yeah, I know we are wimps in central FL...But the Gods have decided (Sorry but there is only one true God) that we are to get a bit chilly tonight with lows around 28-29 degrees... I spend roughly $2,000 a year on private forecasters to give me winter updates to alert me if we are facing trouble with cold weather. Tonight I have a 50/50 decision to make, one forecaster has called for freezing temps below 29 degrees and the other has called the morning low to be 32 degrees... This does not sound like much of a difference but it is when you have a "full" bloom on your trees because the difference means having a crop for next year and not having one...This is not counting the crop already on the trees... I have decided to go with the more optimistic forecast and this means I have not flooded or plan to run micro-jets to irrigate our citrus...I know the constant farming drama on the board gets old but I "try" to bring home what the day to day decision making means in real dollars so the rest of world understands the joys of farming means at the end of the day... So if it crosses your mind tonight say a kind word to our one and only true God and ask him to spare the crop managed by a one eyed color blind farmer in central Florida tonight... 8)
Thanks everyone its amazing how I count on the fellowship of my friends at skybox even if I contually bounce my farming concerns at you.... Your prayers are coveted and appreciated, thanks. Its honestly just real life as with everyone on the board, now let me get a shower and go to work.. hopefully the most exciting thing tonight will be how many coons I run across in my travels through the farm. Have a good night. .
Well.....It worked out for us, we just barely and I mean by a gnats ass missed the damage incurred last night in our area from this mornings freeze... Your thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated and the kind words go a long way....We hit 32 degrees at 4am and for some strange reason held that until sunrise. This is not the norm because it always gets colder as sunrise approaches... My partner 30 miles north lost 70% of his peaches because he was 2 stinking degrees cooler than we were....Our citrus did not have any damage at all and our peach crop is in perfect shape... I have been on the other side of receiving damage more than not and I feel the pain for the loss of income and thoughts if we should keep doing this or not...That Dodge commercial really did a great job in describing the life of a farmer and the human effort to push through adversity...
I've spent the better part of the last two weeks working with the Agribusiness folks at the Florida State Fair in Tampa. Yes Northerners, our State Fair is in February. Anyway, I know there has been a lot of angst and prayers over last week's potential frost. They were picking strawberries as fast as they could pick them ahead of it. Made for great supply for events at the State Fair, but next week's Strawberry Festival will likely be hold-overs. Or from luckier farms that missed the freeze like Ralph's.