Agriculture fares winter blues posted Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 @ 3:32 pm  E-mail Story |  Print Story  Bad weather hasn't hampered crop yields much in Franklin Parish, according to agriculture officials. Even with recent heavy rain and cold snaps, crops are faring well this year in the parish, said Carol Pinnell- Alison, with the LSU AgCenter. The good news is that most of the parish's crops are already in except wheat, which is yet to be harvested. Pinnell-Alison, however, doesn't expect the crop to suffer much, as long as farmers took proper precautions to make sure their fields had adequate drainage. "Wheat is a crop that has to have well drained soil, so I'm sure there will be pockets that won't do too well," she said. "It will will be different depending on the planter." The National Weather Service reports Franklin Parish has received over four inches of rain so far this year. Corn, the parish's chief crop, did a little less in 2009, with 79,000 acres yielding 160 bushels per-acre. Last year, roughly the same amount of acres yielded 165 bushels per-acre, according the AgCenter. The United States Department of Agriculture reports corn production is slightly up in Louisiana to an estimated 80.5 million bushels of corn for grain, with 630,000 acres planted, yielding 132 bushels per-acre. Rice did particularly well in Louisiana in 2009, setting record yields of 29.9 million cwt. (100 weight) harvested—up eight percent from 2009— from 464,000 acres. There were 3,134 acres of rice harvested in Franklin Parish in 2009. In the parish, 2009 soybean production was about the same as in 2008, with 4,871 acre yielding 40 bushels per-acre. Across the state, there are an estimated 36.7 bushels, up 17 percent from the previous year. Louisiana farmers harvested 940,000 acres of soybeans in 2009, with yields at 39 bushels per-acre, up six bushels from 2008. There were 11,871 acres of cotton planted in Franklin Parish in 2009, with 904 pounds per-acre yields. Cotton acreage in Franklin Parish was down by half from 2008, due to falling prices and rising production cost, the AgCenter reports. Statewide, cotton production was down 23 percent from 2008, with 225,000 acres producing 725 pounds per-acre. There were 3,379 acres of sweet potatoes planted in Franklin Parish in 2009 and 14,000 planted statewide. Overall, sweet potato production in the state is estimated at 1.6 million cwt., up 47 percent from 2008.