Heavy rains have damaged crops across the state of Mississippi, but cotton and peanut crops along the Gulf coast won't be a total wash out, Gulf Live.com reported on Thursday. Mike Howell, an area agronomist with the Mississippi State University Cooperative Extension Service, said the earlier-planted cotton crop was hurt by the wet and windy weather while the later-planted cotton is doing better. Howell estimated that 60 to 70 percent of the coastal cotton remains to be harvested. Peanut farmers have been digging up the crop then letting them rest in the field to dry. "Peanuts were ready to harvest when it started raining," Howell said. The peanut crop in George and Jackson counties would average about 3,500 pounds per acre, down 500 pounds from last year, he said. The cotton yield is normally about 800 pounds per acre, but this year it will be about 400 pounds per acre with some yields dipping as low as 200 pounds per acre. Scott Porter, county executive director of the George-Jackson County Farm Service Agency (FSA) said the lower yields and higher inputs are pressuring local farmers, but the year isn't a disaster locally. "As far as it being a disaster, we haven't seen that. It is not like we had a Hurricane Katrina," Porter said.

(Gulf Live, November 19, 2009)

(http://www.gulflive.com/…)