USDA disaster declaration covers Goochland County after late spring frost losses

The USDA announced a Secretarial Disaster Declaration June 26 that included Goochland County after late spring frost and freeze damage hit Virginia farms. The county was named one of 43 primary disaster counties, alongside 61 contiguous Virginia counties.

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins approved Virginia’s request after weather damage that ran from March 17 through May 4, 2026. Virginia formally requested the designation on May 27, and the state executive director of USDA’s Farm Service Agency made a separate request on June 4 for the 43-county primary area.

A Secretarial natural disaster designation can make producers eligible for emergency loans. For orchard, vineyard and grain operations, that can matter as cash flow tightens before harvest revenue arrives and while damaged blocks still carry labor, spray and cleanup costs. Goochland growers in the primary county, and neighboring producers in the contiguous counties listed in the declaration, may be able to seek that assistance if their losses meet program requirements.

An unusually warm early spring pushed shoots, buds, blossoms and small grain development ahead of the freezes, leaving tender growth exposed when cold weather returned. The damage hit fruits, vines, ornamental trees and small grain crops. Some growers lost entire apple, peach and grape crops, a blow that can erase a season’s income in a county where perennial crops take years to establish.

The USDA Risk Management Agency issued emergency procedures in May for crops hit by the late April freeze, describing the damage as catastrophic for perennial crops in Virginia and several other states. Virginia Cooperative Extension estimates put statewide direct losses from the freeze events at between $32.4 million and $105.3 million. The Agricultural Center opened in January 2019 and houses the Goochland County Cooperative Extension office and the Monacan Soil and Water Conservation District.