Flood Damage to Farms Exceeds $110 Million

Preliminary estimates of agriculture losses in flood-ravaged Louisiana have hit $110 million.

The two hardest hit commodities in the state are rice and soybeans, said Kurt Guidry, an agriculture economist for Louisiana State University.

About 20 percent of rice acres were unharvested at the time of the flooding.

Louisiana has more soybean acreage than any other crop—between 1.2 and 1.3 million acres. About 450,000 are in the state’s hard-hit southern region.

“When the flood came, most of those soybeans were ready for harvest,” said Guidry. “They’d been sprayed and defoliated. For those that didn’t go underwater or where the waters receded quickly, it’s now a race against time to get into the fields and bring the beans in. Otherwise, we’ll see quantity, and probably more importantly, quality losses.”

Soybeans in the middle of the state were not as mature and likely will not be as affected. “But again, we need some drier conditions to harvest. It’s becoming a real concern,” Guidry said.

Damages related to sugarcane, livestock and cotton are also only preliminary but appear to be less dramatic. The $110 million estimate is only for production losses and the impact on gross revenue.

“There will also be impacts on quality issues, increased cost of production because of harvest inefficiencies, and some stored commodities that were lost,” Guidry said.

In southwest Louisiana, for example, about 80 percent of the rice was harvested and in storage.

Source: DeltaFarmPress.com