By Clint Thompson
One Southwest Alabama citrus producer is faced with a potential career-defining decision following the 2025 freeze/snow event. Craig Goolsby, with Silverhill Satsumas in Baldwin County, said last year’s freeze led to a loss in productive trees for him and his colleagues.
“We run a small co-op. Prior to the 2025 freeze, we had about 1,200 productive trees. From that 1,200 productive trees; and those trees were planted in 2011 and 2012 and they are fine, middle of the production trees; we lost somewhere in the vicinity of 700,” Goolsby said. “One of our growers lost around 420, 450, one lost 240 and I lost 170. We’ve gone from 1,200 productive trees down to 250 to 300.”
Goolsby must now decide if he will replace those trees his partners lost, as they have opted to quit citrus production and not replant.
“Do I want to shoulder the burden of trying to replant and get back to the time where we were, in essence, pushing out fruit from 1,200 trees, or do I want to just back off and do what it is with 200 or 300 trees? I’m still not sure where I want to go,” he added. “I’ve replaced my 170 to get back to my 500, but I don’t have 500 productive trees.”
Long Time Waiting
It will take some time for Goolsby to get back his own lost production. He said it will require another seven years to finally start producing good pieces of fruit again with the trees he just replanted.
“Young fruit is just not as good as old fruit. Young trees don’t produce as good of quality fruit as older trees,” Goolsby said.
Goolsby has the option of staying with his current production, though he will miss out on the expanded production that he and his partners enjoyed prior to the freeze.
“When you’re pushing out, lets just say 75,000 pounds of fruit versus 300,000 pounds of fruit, it’s a big difference,” Goolsby said.