Recovery from frost
Frost is difficult to manage. It has a significant financial and emotional impact on the whole community.
Financial
- Conduct a full objective assessment to determine level of loss
- Evaluate possible salvage options
- Make note of the location and severity of frost, as this will help to inform future crop choice and post frost decisions
- Communicate and discuss the plan with your bank and farm advisors. It maybe wise to leave big decisions to after harvest once stress levels have reduced.
Emotional
- It's important for growers to remember to take care of themselves and support others who have suffered frost damage. Everyone deals with things differently and the effect will be different for every farming family
- Frost is an emotive issue because you can see such high yield potential, and you've worked hard all year to maintain that. Its important to acknowledge no one has done anything wrong in particular, it just comes back to one of those things where we can't farm to avoid frost damage or we'll all go broke
- Seek help from family, friends, the community and advisors to help work through this stressful period and help devise a plan to move forward.