The majority of Florida’s citrus producing counties were hit with high winds and flooding, along with areas that raise dairy cattle and produce products like cotton, peanuts, rice, blueberries, strawberries and other tropical fruits, the agency said.

Milton came ashore as a Category 3 hurricane on Oct. 9 and carved a swathe of destruction across 51 counties, 34 of which were declared disaster areas, with widespread flooding and wind damage.

Florida’s citrus sector sustained “significant production losses” and likely long-term impacts, the agency said.

“Most of these losses are due to fruit drop, damage to branches, and impacts from heavy precipitation and flooding. Growers are also reporting heavy infrastructure damage, and there are major concerns of flood-caused tree mortality in the near-future,” it said in the preliminary report based on initial reporting and communication with farmers.

“Minor to catastrophic damages” were expected in cotton, peanut and rice areas.

The state’s dairy and cattle operations were also severely hit with “significant infrastructure damages” while power outages in the storm’s wake disrupted cow milking and production.

More complete damage assessments will be released at more information is gathered, the agency said.

—Reporting for Reuters by Karl Plume and P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago

The post Hurricane Milton caused $1.5-$2.5 billion in losses to Florida agriculture appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Milton, which led to at least 17 reported deaths, added to piles of debris following Hurricane Helene.

Mosaic said it will provide an update on production losses from Milton and Helene as recovery efforts progress. Early assessments show limited damage to its facilities and products in warehouses, according to a company statement. It added that power has been restored to all facilities.

Mosaic said on Friday that water supporting its storage of a waste byproduct from fertilizer manufacturing at a facility in Riverview, Florida, probably made its way into Tampa Bay following a downpour from Milton. The industrial byproduct, phosphogypsum, is known to emit radon, a cancer-causing radioactive gas.

The company said on Monday that “no significant environmental impacts occurred” due to the recent storms.

The post Mosaic expects Florida fertilizer facilities to return to full production soon appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The discharge of possibly more than 17,500 gallons from Mosaic’s facility in Riverview, a fast-growing Tampa suburb, raised potential environmental concerns.

The industrial byproduct, phosphogypsum, is known to emit radon, a cancer-causing radioactive gas.

Mosaic said a storage system for water around a pile of phosphogypsum became overwhelmed in Riverview. The site received nearly 15 inches of rain during Hurricane Milton less than two weeks after Hurricane Helene, the company said in a statement.

Water quality impacts in Tampa Bay are expected to be “modest,” if any, Mosaic said.

The company addressed the overflow issue on Thursday and it was not continuing on Friday, it said in the statement. “We’ve been in constant communication with regulators who are onsite today.”

The affected phosphogypsum pile is closed, meaning the company is not adding new material to it, Mosaic said.

Phosphogypsum contains radium, which decays to form radon gas, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said, noting that radium and radon are radioactive and can cause cancer.

The EPA requires that phosphogypsum be managed in engineered piles or stacks to limit public exposure from radon emissions.

The EPA told Reuters the Florida Department of Environmental Protection regulates the design, construction, operation and maintenance of phosphogypsum stack systems and they must continue to comply with all regulatory requirements.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection had no immediate comment.

Mosaic, which mines phosphate rock in Florida and produces about three-quarters of North America’s phosphate fertilizers, said it idled Florida operations in anticipation of Milton.

The post Mosaic says fertilizer waste facility’s water entered Tampa Bay after Hurricane Milton appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The Category 4 storm closed in on Florida’s west coast as millions of people along a stretch of more than 300 miles (483 km) of coastline were under evacuation orders ahead of its expected landfall near Tampa Bay around midnight.

Milton is the second major storm to hit Florida in two weeks after Hurricane Helene came ashore in the Big Bend region on Sept. 26 and carved a path of destruction across agricultural areas of the Southeast.

Fertilizer maker Mosaic said it has idled Florida operations. The company, which mines phosphate rock in the state and produces about three-quarters of North America’s phosphate fertilizers, said last week that a facility in Riverview, Florida, was offline because of a storm surge from Helene.

Milton is expected to affect an even larger number of Florida phosphate facilities than Helene, said Veronica Nigh, senior economist for The Fertilizer Institute, an industry group.

“The lack of processing and phosphate shipments that will occur as a result of Helene and now Milton will further tighten the phosphate market,” Nigh said.

As much as 42 per cent of U.S. ammonium phosphate, 32 per cent of U.S. phosphate rock, and half of U.S. wet-processed phosphoric acid production capacity is located near Tampa Bay, Nigh said. About 40 per cent of all U.S. phosphate fertilizer exports and 27 per cent of total fertilizer exports go through Port Tampa Bay, she said.

Flour producer Ardent Mills closed its Port Redwing mill south of Tampa. The facility, opened in 2022, can produce up to 1.8 million pounds of flour a day from imported grain or wheat grown in the Midwest and Southeast.

Global agribusiness Cargill Inc preemptively closed its salt-packaging and animal-nutrition facility in Milton’s path, the company said.

—Reporting for Reuters by Karl Plume and Tom Polansek in Chicago, and P.J. Huffstutter in Fort Wayne, Indiana

The post Florida fertilizer plants, grain mills close as Hurricane Milton nears appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Corn futures followed soybeans higher while wheat futures were lower, anchored by persistent export competition from Black Sea suppliers.

Chicago Board of Trade November soybeans were up 24-3/4 cents at $10.65-3/4 a bushel after reaching $10.69-1/2, the contract’s highest since July 26. Front-month October soymeal futures were up $19.50 at $343.70 per short ton after rising to $345.60, their highest since mid-June.

Benchmark CBOT corn was up 4-1/4 cents at $4.18 a bushel while Dec wheat was down 4-1/4 cents at $5.80 a bushel.

Soybeans soared at mid-session, fueled in part by storm-related concerns. Helene brought life-threatening flooding to the Carolinas after causing widespread destruction as a major hurricane moving through Florida and Georgia overnight.

“There is a bit of concern about some infrastructure damage along the Gulf Coast,” said Terry Reilly, senior agricultural strategist at Marex. “End-of-month and end-of-quarter positioning is adding the strength, with some of the shorts exiting the market,” Reilly said.

Widespread rains from the storm were expected to slow the harvest of soybeans and corn in the far southern Midwest and far northern Delta over the next few days, space technology company Maxar said in a daily weather note. However, elsewhere in the Corn Belt, traders expect a busy harvest weekend.

Market bulls continued to note uncertainty about the likelihood of rains next month in northern areas of Brazil, the world’s biggest soy producer, where dry conditions have slowed the start of planting.

Traders were also bracing for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s closely watched quarterly stocks and annual small grains summary reports due on Monday.

The wheat market remained under pressure as Russian supplies continued to dominate the export market while U.S. wheat sales lagged in the latest reporting week.

The post U.S. grains: Soy futures soar on US weather woes appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Port Fourchon, Louisiana, home to marine and equipment suppliers to offshore oil producers, was closed to vessel traffic as was the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the only U.S. deepwater port that can handle very large crude carriers (VLCCs) for oil imports and exports.

New Orleans, Plaquemines, Cameron, Lake Charles and Houmaports remained closed on Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard said, tying up fuel, soybean and grains headed for export. Francine’s rains could threaten the region’s cotton crop, agriculture officials said.

Six eastern Louisiana refineries, most around New Orleans, were operating with minimal staff to ride out the storm in the plants. Exxon Mobil’s Baton Rouge refinery cut output to as low as 20% of its 522,500 barrel-per-day (bpd) capacity in preparation for Francine’s landfall.

U.S. crude oil climbed as much as $2 a barrel on Wednesday, driven by fears of lengthy production shutdowns in the offshore oil patch as Francine barreled through.

About a quarter of all oil and natural gas production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico was offline on Tuesday, according to the offshore regulator. A total of 130 production platforms and two rigs had been evacuated.

Francine was moving northeast on Wednesday with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (150 kph), the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. A faster motion is expected later in the day. Its center is expected to move across Mississippi on Thursday.

The storm is expected to bring heavy rainfall and the risk of considerable flooding across southeastern Louisiana, Mississippi, far southern Alabama and northern Florida.

Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry and U.S. President Joe Biden declared state of emergency for Louisiana.

The hurricane could spare liquefied natural gas plants recently built or expanded near the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, which is home to about 15 per cent of U.S. oil production and two per cent of natural gas output. The storm track was further east than many of the coastal plants.

Texas relieved

As the hurricane moved north along from Texas coast, some ports that had closed to vessel navigation earlier this week including Beaumont, Port Arthur, Sabine and Brownsville began post-storm assessments in preparation for reopening, the Coast Guard said.

Francine has disrupted crop shipments to the Mississippi Gulf region, responsible for about 55 per cent of U.S. soy exports, said Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, an industry group.

“The barge companies are not directing their barge flotillas to go down into that area until the storm exits the region,” Steenhoek said.

Francine’s ultimate impact will depend on how severe the storm is, Steenhoek said. While hoping for minimal disruptions and damage, traders also are watching to see whether Francine brings needed precipitation to the Mississippi River at a time when low water levels have slowed grain transportation.

Farmers in the central Gulf Coast region and the Mississippi Delta were preparing for the storm’s arrival by harvesting crops, including rice and soybeans, where possible, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a weather report.

Much of the region’s cotton crop is vulnerable to damage from rain and winds as their bolls are opening, USDA said.

—Additional reporting for Reuters by Sherin Elizabeth Varghese

The post Louisiana energy hubs, crop exports disrupted ahead of Hurricane Francine appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Contracts for frozen concentrated orange juice (FCOJ) at ICE hit a high of $3.292/lb. during the session, the second highest price ever, just shy of the record of $3.3175/lb. seen on Aug. 17 (all figures US$).

Florida’s orange crop this year was already on the way to being small, only around half the size it produced just two years ago, due to diseases and erratic weather. The hurricane will exacerbate the situation.

“There is little hope for a bigger crop next year,” said commodities analyst Judith Ganes.

Fields in Florida were still recovering from the impact of hurricane Ian in 2019, while also suffering from a bacterial disease known as greening.

Authorities in Florida have yet to evaluate damage to infrastructure and agricultural production as the storm moved over to Georgia.

Also on Wednesday, Brazilian industry group CitrusBR said in a statement that stocks of orange juice at the end of the 2022-23 season (July-June) fell 40 per cent to 84,745 metric tonnes, the lowest level since the group started to collect the data 12 years ago.

CitrusBR said the fall is a result of a smaller-than-expected crop in the world’s largest orange juice producer and exporter, as well as falling juice yields from the fruits.

— Reporting for Reuters by Marcelo Teixeira.

The post Orange juice prices near all-time high as storm hits Florida appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Fiona powered up to a Category 4 storm on Wednesday, packing winds as high as 215 km/h, as it moved northward after carving a destructive path through the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

Hurricane-force winds are expected to reach Cape Breton, which has a population of about 100,000, by Friday and continue north over the weekend, Environment Canada said in an alert.

“This storm is shaping up to be a potentially severe event for Atlantic Canada,” the alert said. It was issued for much of Atlantic Canada, along with parts of southern Quebec.

Hurricanes are common in Atlantic Canada, with three to four storms entering Canadian waters on average each season and about half of those making landfall.

“We are really expecting damaging winds, possibly damaging storm surge, coastal flooding, flooding rains,” Environment Canada meteorologist Jill Maepea said.

“This is expected to be a very large system,” Maepea said, adding that authorities are anticipating several days of power outages in areas hardest hit by winds.

Parts of Cape Breton islands and eastern Nova Scotia have had rainfall throughout the summer, making them more vulnerable to flooding, she said.

Fiona made landfall in Puerto Rico on Sunday and has since caused devastating flooding and landslides on the island, a U.S. territory. Over the following two days, the storm gathered steam as it barreled into the Dominican Republic and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

About 40 per cent of Puerto Rico’s 3.3 million residents were still without water and three-fourths were lacking power on Wednesday, as authorities tried to determine the scale of the destruction.

— Reporting for Reuters by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa.

The post Atlantic Canada on Hurricane Fiona’s path, broad impact expected appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

Global grain trader Cargill said it had reopened its Westwego, La. grain export terminal and on Monday unloaded its first grain barge since Ida came ashore on Aug. 29 and crippled shipments from the busiest U.S. grain export hub.

Cargill is the latest major grain trader to revive export operations after Ida devastated the region’s power grid and damaged some of the nearly dozen grain terminals dotted along the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to the Gulf of Mexico.

Heavy rains from Nicholas lashed storm-battered Louisiana again on Tuesday after coming ashore on the Texas Gulf Coast, bringing the threat of floods and more power outages. The storm was expected to move over Louisiana, Mississippi and the Florida panhandle through Thursday.

Power was finally restored to Cargill’s heavily damaged terminal in Reserve, La. on Monday for the first time since Ida, but the company is still assessing damages from that storm and developing “phased reopening plans,” Cargill spokeswoman April Nelson said.

Cargill is monitoring rains from Nicholas on Tuesday, but it has not confirmed any impact on recovery efforts, Nelson said.

Rival exporters Louis Dreyfus and ADM have been loading export shipments for several days, while a facility owned by Bunge remains shuttered, according to the companies and shipping sources.

CHS and Zen-Noh Grain, which also operate large grain terminals near the Louisiana Gulf Coast, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on their recovery efforts.

U.S. grain exports hit their lowest level in years last week as shippers struggled to restart their facilities at the Gulf, where some 60 per cent of U.S. crop exports exit the country.

The U.S. corn harvest is starting, meaning more grains will be available to move in coming weeks.

Nine grain vessels were loading for export at Gulf terminals and floating rigs this week, up from just three late last week, a barge broker said.

Louisiana state officials said rains from Nicholas are complicating the recovery from Ida, particularly in flooded parishes and those still without power, and in areas along flood-swollen rivers.

“We’ve gone through this sort of thing in the past, where we will get two storms at a time during the peak of hurricane system,” said Mike Strain, commissioner of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture. “It complicates matters.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Karl Plume in Chicago; additional reporting by P.J. Huffstutter in Chicago.

The post Some grain terminals restart after Ida as Nicholas rains arrive appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

One of the bovine bodysurfers was seen soon after the Category 1 storm struck on Sept. 6 and now two other cows have joined her at Cape Lookout National Seashore, park ranger Karen Duggan said on Thursday.

All are members of a wild herd of cattle that lives in marshes on an interior island known as Cedar Island, about two to three miles closer to the mainland than the barrier island park.

“The water picked them up, carried them, they managed to stay afloat and come to rest on our island,” Duggan said.

“They can all swim, but they are not the best swimmers. Of the cattle that got swept away — and I don’t know how many that was — only three of them have managed to find footing on the islands that remain.”

A cow typically weighs 600 to 2,500 lbs., and the swell was deep enough to carry at least three of them across the waters to the sands of the federal seashore.

Since no one owns the cows, Duggan said, authorities are still deciding the animals’ fate, including whether they may continue to while away their hours on the beach, feeding off nearby marshes.

“We have not been able to locate anyone who claims them. They were just allowed on property. No one took care of them, no one gave them vet care, no one handled them. Therefore they are wild,” Duggan said.

While it’s unclear how the rest of the wild cattle herd fared, wild horses that live on nearby Shackleford Banks island not only survived but thrived despite the deadly storm that ravaged the Bahamas and killed at least 50 people.

“We didn’t lose any horses during the storm,” Duggan said. “We’ve got 115 wild horses, including the newest foal, which was born during the hurricane.”

— Jonathan Drake is a Reuters photographer at Raleigh, N.C.; writing and additional reporting for Reuters by Barbara Goldberg in New York.

The post Dorian swept swimming cows two miles to North Carolina beach appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.