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Rain puts pressure on parish crops
The rain that fell as Hurricane Gustav marched across Louisiana was not good news for area farmers.
LSU AgCenter's Carol Pinnell-Alison said the Macon Ridge research station recorded 3.42 inches of rain in less than 24 hours.
That rain fell on cotton and soybean crops already hampered by higher-than-average rainfall in August.
"The rain and the wind is not good for the crops that are still out there," said Pinnell-Alison.
Dry-land cotton was beginning to near the point of harvest. However, August rains meant a second growth. Coupled with the rains from Gustav, Pinnell-Alison said that crop is beginning to see damage.
Early soybeans also have taken a beating.
Across the board, farmers have felt the brunt of bad weather.
"It's really too early to tell, but what we do have is not good," Pinnell-Alison said. "It's been really stressful for our producers."
One spot of good news is that most of the corn crop seems to have gotten out of the fields before Gustav's arrival.
Pinnell-Alison said area producers had been able to get a good portion of the corn harvested before the latest round of rains.
Franklin Parish farmer and Ag consultant Buck Sims said he had surveyed a few fields still holding corn as of Tuesday morning and said things looked good so far.
"What corn fields I've seen this morning still were standing pretty good," Sims said. "If you've got to go through weather like this, corn's the crop to have."
Sims said the remaining crops seem to have faired pretty well in the winds brought by Gustav.
"I'm sure there is some that's been blown down, but so far it looks okay," Sims said.
However, soybeans and cotton will definitely feel the impact of the storm.
The crop that took Gustav on the nose? Early-maturing cotton.
"The early maturing cotton, this has pretty much devastated it," Sims said. "We'll still have to pick it, and it'll pick some, but not much."
Medium cotton also took a beating but should still make a crop, Sims said.
The best news for area producers: late cotton and wheat cotton — cotton planted behind wheat crops — seems to be fine.
The same pattern held true for soybeans, Sims said.
Early soybeans had been ready for harvest but wet conditions kept producers out of the fields.
Sims said Gustav "pretty much devastated" early soybeans.
"I don't want anybody to lose hope but it looks like it isn't going to be pretty," Sims said.
As with cotton, wheat soybeans looked to have made it through the storm relatively unscathed, Sims said.
Now, all farmers can do is wait for the rains to pass and for the fields to dry out.
Until that happens, everyone seems to be keeping an eye on the skies — and on Tropical Storm Ike, which is making its way towards the Gulf of Mexico. |
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