ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) —  Hurricane Gustav, which roared through central Louisiana earlier this month, hit state cotton crops hard.
The LSU AgCenter reports Gustav, which struck Louisiana’s ripe cotton fields on Sept. 1, cost farmers an estimated 58 percent of their yields, or about $136.6 million.
The high winds of the storm were followed by heavy rains, which did extensive damage to the crop.
“I would think we lost about half. We are having to go twice as far to get a basket than we used to do,” said Pat Peterman, who grows 625 acres of cotton on his Bayou Rapides farm.
This year’s crop didn’t start off well, Peterman said, then a Category 1 hurricane provided the final blow, Peterman said
“We didn’t have a bumper crop because of a dry June, but Gustav definitely took what we had,” he said.
Before Gustav hit, 60 to 90 percent of the bolls on Louisiana’s cotton were open and ready for harvest, the AgCenter reported.
Under normal circumstances, large amounts would have been harvested by the end of the month. Instead, about 10 percent has been harvested with 60 percent of that rated very poor to poor by the AgCenter.
The AgCenter has rated 29 percent of Louisiana’s cotton crop already harvested fair, with only 11 percent rated good.
No cotton yet harvested has been given the AgCenter’s highest rating of excellent.
There is so much cotton on the ground, some producers are cutting their loss by choosing to mow over fields rather than harvest.
Some cotton gins are not expected to operate this year because of Gustav’s impact.
LSU AgCenter agricultural economists are still estimating the cost of this year’s hurricane season on the state’s agriculture revenues, but early calculations show it could be as high as $950 million.
Numbers include more than $760 million in lost revenue to Louisiana farmers, ranchers, foresters and fishers, as well as $175 million to $200 million in damage to industry infrastructure.
Buck Mathews, who has been farming cotton for about 60 years, said weather damage to fields this year has been among the worst he has seen.
“It’s been close, but it’s never the same,” he said. “In ’57 when Audrey hit it was bad, but (that) was early in June. Rita (in 2005) was bad too.”
 
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