Harvest coming into full swing

A cotton picker harvests crops in fields west of Clarkton near Missouri 25 Wednesday. [Click to enlarge]

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA) Director Fred Ferrell said barring more wet weather, the harvest season should be in full swing statewide next week.

Ferrell, who visited the Gideon area last Friday to tour storm-damaged fields, told The Daily Dunklin Democrat in a Thursday interview that he equates the season with a see-saw.

"Some places around the state will have an upfeel and all will be going good," he said. "Other counties will be on the down side."

Producers reported some fields in Bootheel counties were drowned with more than 20 inches of rain in flash incidents, which destroyed an estimated 25 to 50 percent of cotton crops there and resulted in ground saturation and flooding, Ferrell said.

"New Madrid County and a corridor from Portageville to Gideon sustained the most damage," the director said. "Lower Dunklin County -- from the Senath area south -- wasn't hit as bad."

Arbyrd Mayor Lonnie Gibson, Jr., a producer who grows 2,450 acres of cotton in addition to other crops, said although farmers to the north of his southern Dunklin County acreage were pummeled with hard-edged weather, he was blessed with an excellent crop.

"We got in the fields here on Sept. 28," Gibson said. "Harvest is going great.

"I'm on a cotton picker right now talking to you," he added. "It would be very selfish of me to say we were hurt at all, considering how doggone awful they got it north of here. It's a mess."

Just two days prior to Gibson and his hands entering the fields to begin cotton harvesting, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt directed Missouri Farm Service Agency (FSA) representatives to assess damages for 14 counties -- including Dunklin, New Madrid and Butler -- that face crop losses because of recent torrential downpours, dangerous winds and related floods.

FSA Dunklin County Executive Director Aaron Ivie said Thursday that both he and Farm Loan Manager Brent Landers toured the area, and damage might prove to be less than predicted.

"It doesn't look as bad as we thought," Ivie said. "It surely doesn't look as bad as it did two weeks ago.

"The water got down off the plants pretty quick," Ivie continued. "We don't have a good handle on the quality question yet. Some areas will experience decreased quality, for sure. But we think it's maybe a 15 to 20-percent loss county wide. The damage really was confined mostly from Holcomb north to Campbell, and then across both sides of Crowley's Ridge. Most of the water has gone down. That's helped us out a lot."

Ferrell said damage assessments are slated for delivery to Blunt's office for review in the near future, and that he hopes to address the documents himself soon after they cross the governor's desk.

"We should have a handle on the assessments next week," Ferrell said. "After next week, we'll have a better handle on how the weather events affected cotton.

"Of course, the cotton issue will be played out as we begin to gin," the director added. "We'll be especially mindful of grades and color, which, of course, are important measures of fiber quality."

The soybean crop in some of the rain-soaked fields were damaged beyond repair, the director noted.

"Soybeans in New Madrid County south to Mississippi County were ruined," he said. "I saw fields that literally were under water."

But the recent dry spell might offer Bootheel producers a bit of hope, Ferrell explained.

"I'm told we're beginning to harvest in areas of sandy ground, where farmers are able to get into the fields," Ferrell said. "The muddier places will have to wait until the ground dries. Now, in Southeast Missouri, we face the normal trials and tribulations of harvest time. We don't want any more rain right now, especially since most of the cotton crops are defoliated and we're just recovering from this flooding."

However, the director noted livestock producers in the northern part of the state are praying for rain so that pastures have a chance to rebound from ongoing drought conditions.

"All 114 counties in the state have been impacted in some way by weather events," Ferrell said. "There are 96 counties still suffering from drought.

"North of Jefferson City, we deal with the drought," he added. "In the south, we have flooding. The state his diverse issues, like it always does. We have both ends of the spectrum to address. We should know something about assistance for the drought by Dec. 1."

Ferrell said in addition to state attention, he hopes some kind of fiscal intervention and assistance at the federal level is included for Missouri in a new Farm Bill.

"What we've learned this year are good tools to add to our tool box," he said. "We'll be considering all these events as we continue strategizing for the Farm Bill.

"We have to be able to provide for sustainability for our producers," the director continued. "We have lots of risk-management tools at our disposal. We need to take advantage of that, and offer future generations of producers the opportunity to remain in agriculture."