Farmers can’t make it without rain. But after six soggy months of soakers, many aren’t
certain they can survive with it, either.
University of Georgia scientists and county
Ni¤o rains have virtually ended farmers’ struggles to harvest cotton and delayed planting
of this year’s crops.
"This last rain has pretty well wrapped up our cotton harvest," said
"I don’t think many (farmers) will try to get any more cotton in."
Barentine said Pulaski County farmers had picked most of their cotton. Statewide,
agricultural officials say 10,000 acres or more have been abandoned, and cotton losses may
go as high as $200 million.
"We have less than 1,000 acres still in the fields," he said. "The
grades were already so poor they were only getting 25-30 cents a pound for it."
Cotton sold for around 70 cents a pound as the harvest began last fall.
Over the first weekend in March, many areas of the state got six inches of rain or
more. Screven County Extension Agent Lamar
Zipperer said the rains hurt the cotton harvest hopes of only a few farmers in his
county.
"The biggest damage these last rains have done to cotton is to next year’s
crop," Zipperer said. "Normally, we’d have much of the land prepared for
planting cotton by now.
"We’d have the fields harrowed and bedded for cotton and start in on planting
corn, then wait around a while before getting into planting cotton and peanuts," he
said. "But it’s not going to be that way this year. We’re going to be scrambling. It
may be that some crops will get planted this year without the land preparation and
fertilization they normally get."
The state’s $159 million corn crop will be late getting planted, too.
"Typically, the third and fourth weeks of March make up the most active time of
corn planting here," he said. "But we won’t make that this year. If it stops
raining right now and turns off sunny and hot instead of cold, we still won’t make
that."
Dewey Lee, a grains agronomist with the
UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences,
said planting corn after the normal late March and early April planting dates in south
Georgia can lead to quality losses up to 1 percent per day.
Barentine said the rains will push his farmers’ watermelon and cantaloupe planting
back, too.
"We should be getting fields ready to put melon transplants in right now," he
said. "But we can’t get into the fields. This rain has put us off at least another
week. Ordinarily, we’d be transplanting next week. The longer the transplants stay in the
greenhouse, the bigger they get and the more susceptible they are to bad weather."
The state’s wheat crop continues to struggle, too.
"All this rainy, cloudy weather won’t let it grow," Barentine said.
"We’re not getting enough sunshine, and nitrogen is leaching out. We can’t topdress
it except with aerial application. That’s just an extra expense with a crop that doesn’t
look good already."
When all the damage has been counted up, Zipperer figures the hardest-hit has been the
farmers’ psyche.
"It’s kind of like going to war — you’ve got to get psyched up about winning
when you set out. But El Ni¤o has just about knocked the breath out of a lot of these
boys," he said. "That’s a real problem. Among other things, you’ve got to have
the right attitude for the credit to flow. It’s a tough way to start the year."
