FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas farmers could lose $225 million after heavy rain late in the growing season, state officials said Friday.
The Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service said cotton had the most severe damage, with farmers estimated to lose $115.5 million. Cotton bolls didn't open in the rain or cotton rotted or had sprouting seeds.
Rice farmers lost about $50 million, and soybean growers lost $49 million, the extension service said, citing totals developed by the Division of Agriculture at the University of Arkansas. The rain beat down rice, and storm winds in some places blew rice heads away.
Soybean growers had flooded fields and had to cope with Asian soybean rust, a fungus that thrives and spreads in wet conditions.
Emergency declarations have been announced for 60 of Arkansas' 75 counties after 15 inches of rain in October. Much of the state averages only 4 or 5 inches of rain during the month.
Fields dried out enough in this week's sunshine for farmers to get equipment in, though the process was sometimes unnervingly slow.
Kevin Hoke was among the cotton growers who had to stop picking to clean mud from picker headers because the soft ground allowed the big wheels to sink further than the machine could raise the headers.
"We've been picking in the mud and having to stop two or three times a day to clean out the headers," Hoke told The Jonesboro Sun.
The cleaning process can take up to an hour, a frustrating delay, Hoke said.
"We need seven to 10 days of sunshine to dry this out," he said.
Clear weather is forecast through Monday, and Hoke said he hopes the 20 percent rain chance doesn't materialize Tuesday.
"We're scared to death of the 20 percent," he said. "We usually get 5 inches out of that."
Hoke said he expects to leave 30 percent of his cotton on the ground, which extension service cotton expert Tom Barber estimated would be the average loss statewide.
Some soybean fields were still draining Friday. Spring rain kept Cleo Watkins Jr. from planting several fields of soybeans. Then the Cache River overflowed and probably destroyed yields in a couple of others, Watkins said.
He told the Sun Friday he had finished harvesting his rice and was eager to get in what was left of his soybeans.
"We really didn't get all of the rice and beans planted that we wanted to," Watkins said. "But, that was probably a blessing in disguise since the river got out into those fields and probably would have destroyed the crops anyway."
