Yesterday, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer toured vineyards from the shores of Lake Erie through the Finger Lakes to call on the USDA to provide help through the Tree Assistance Program to New York grape producers hard hit by the brutal cold that has afflicted the region this winter. As Cornell experts have warned, the sustained subzero temperatures have damaged overwintering grapevine buds, with the potential for drastically reduced yields and revenues for the 2014 season. The Tree Assistance Program, included in the recently passed Farm Bill, allows a 65% percent federal reimbursement for the cost of replanting grapevines, as well as 50% reimbursement of pruning and removal costs. Schumer is also calling on the USDA to issue a disaster declaration for the region, which would qualify afflicted growers for low-interest emergency loans to see them through the 2014 season.
Hans Walter-Peterson, extension associate with the Finger Lakes Grape Program, joined Schumer while he visited the region, and pointed out that the damage thus far has been highly selective.
“It’s a very localized kind of phenomenon in many ways, and it depends on the varieties, too,” Walter-Peterson said. “There are growers in the Finger Lakes and around Keuka Lake who grow varieties that are based on American species that are better adapted to these conditions - Concord, Catawba, Niagara - that seem to have some damage, but it’s not as bad.”
“But when we get into some of the varieties that have a European background, the ones the Finger Lakes has really been receiving a lot of accolades for recently - like Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc - those aren’t as well adapted to these cold conditions, so that’s where we’re starting to see more damage.”
