Experts Advise Growers to Act Quickly & Document Meticulously
by REBEKAH PIERCE
The 2026 Florida freeze may have lasted just a few days, but its impacts will likely be felt for years. For growers, the thaw marked the beginning of a new challenge: how to make sense of the maze of disaster relief programs to salvage what’s left.
According to David Lott, who co-founded Crop Disaster Recovery with his wife, Kimberly, relief may take longer to arrive than many growers expect.
“It’s pretty typical that it takes a while for a specific disaster to be addressed by one of these programs,” he says. “A couple of years is not unusual.”
In many cases, growers might find that immediate financial support comes from a past event, not the freeze itself.
“These programs are always retroactive rather than proactive,” Lott explains. “Often people come to us worried about the disaster that happened yesterday, but they’ve forgotten about the disaster from a year or two ago that they’ve got funding relief for now.”
For example, the USDA’s Supplemental Disaster Relief Program (SDRP) Stage 2, covering 2023–2024, has an application deadline fast approaching. Similar delays are likely for relief addressing the current freeze.
Catastrophic Losses
Farmers are doing all they can to weather the crisis. The 2026 freeze devastated nearly all sectors of Florida agriculture. Preliminary estimates from the Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services said losses in the ag sector surpassed $3 billion.
The nursery industry, in particular, faced catastrophic losses.
“We’ve had all kinds of deaths, all kinds of Florida species that are grown in tree form, or bushes or hedges, any ornamental nursery,” notes Kimberly Lott.
Blueberry farmers faced a “double whammy.” Rising land prices have pushed blueberry operations further south, so when the freeze hit, an estimated 80% of producers chose to run water over their bushes to protect them, a common practice.
Unfortunately, the sheer, unprecedented duration of the cold caused the water to ice over entirely, snapping the bushes under the weight. Not only did they lose this year’s crop, but also the bushes themselves.
Citrus and vegetable crops also took heavy hits, and even cattle producers are spending far more on feed because of the combined freeze and drought.
Navigating Assistance
Growers, already overwhelmed, often can’t keep up with shifting federal aid rules. That’s where Crop Disaster Recovery steps in. Seventh-generation cattle ranchers David and Kimberly Lott launched their company five years ago and now help clients in 48 states deal with the complex claims process from start to finish.
The agency guides growers through programs like the Tree Assistance Program (TAP), which helps with the costs of removing and replanting dead trees or vines. But there’s a catch: “Under that TAP program, producers need to turn in a notice of loss now, as soon as possible, to their Farm Service Agency, to let them know they want to begin that process,” Kimberly warns. Inspections are required before cleanup. If FSA is too overwhelmed, Kimberly suggests calling a crop insurance agent or NRCS, and above all, not to wait.
Other programs, like the Environmental Conservation Program (ECP), may help more than ever, including atypical applications like replacing dead bushes (ECP has, historically, been more commonly utilized to clean up debris after hurricanes). While Florida Block Grants currently cover 2023–2024 disasters, they may eventually expand to include this freeze, as long as growers maintain meticulous documentation.
Top Advice: Document Carefully
Federal appeals are won and lost on the quality of a farm’s records, so Crop Disaster Recovery emphasizes the importance of tracking everything. Kimberly recommends that producers take photos of damage and debris, but not just standard photos, which can be rejected if the location and date cannot be strictly verified.
Instead, she says, download a geolocation app: “Solo Locator is one we recommend…it captures the geographic location and elevation of where their losses are, and timestamps that information on the image.”
It’s also important to meticulously track labor and cleanup costs. The burden of proof falls squarely on the producer, she says.
It’s a lot of red tape, but according to David, Kimberly, and Jillian Rooney, the Marketing Director at Crop Disaster Recovery, this work is about much more than just filing paperwork; it’s about securing the American food supply.
Many people mistakenly view these disaster programs as a handout or “farmer welfare,” but Rooney says that’s not accurate.
“It’s not a handout,” she says.
David adds, “These disaster aid programs are entitlement programs, so if you meet all the eligibility requirements, you’re entitled to the relief funding. You have a right to it.”
These funds serve as a critical safety net for independent, multi-generational agriculture producers.“When things get bad, and we have the next supply line breakdown, you can’t count on corporations to feed their neighbors,” David says. “Those independent producers keep us from starving. These programs are here to keep them in business.”