Mississippi State University, also known as “Cow College” due to the university’s concentration on agriculture, has lost harvesting crops due to the tropical storms that came through last month. Tropical Storm Isidore brought approximately seven inches of rain to Mississippi and was closely followed by Hurricane Lili bringing additional rain and causing damage to unharvested crops.
Cotton plants were tormented by torrential rains brought by Isidore and were stripped by additional rains brought by Lili.
Dr. Erick J. Larson, research professor and corn specialist with Mississippi State University’s Extension Service, deals with corn and grain sorghum.
“The crops I work with weren’t affected as significantly as cotton, soy beans and rice,” said Larson.
Larson said the 90 percent of corn and grain sorghum were harvested at the time of the tropical storms.
“90 percent of the corn were not exposed, but less than 50 percent of soy beans and cotton had been harvested,” continued Larson.
Tropical storm Lili came through the state Sept. 26 when only approximately 20 percent of the state’s cotton had been harvested. Mississippi farmers tried desperately to harvest their crops with the threat of Lili hanging over their heads, but unfortunately about 75 percent of cotton was still in the fields when Lili hit the coast.
Aboveground crops suffered badly from the close hits of both Isidore and Lili’s tropical storms, but underground crops were not affected as severely.
Mississippi has approximately 15,000 acres of sweet potatoes and at least 10 percent of the state’s sweet potato crop was lost by the rains in the middle of harvest. Sweet potato fields in low-lying areas drowned.