Ida Further Slows Harvest For Southern Farmers

BOB JOHNSON

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Tropical Storm Ida may not have done much damage when it hit the Gulf Coast this week, but its wind and rain compounded the misery for Southern farmers already coping with a wet, difficult harvest season.

"Tack this to the weather we've already had and it's adding insult to injury. This season has been topsy turvey," said Andy Wendland, who grows cotton, corn, soybeans, wheat and other grains in central Alabama.

The problem is that a wet spring delayed planting and a rainy, cool fall has delayed the harvest of cotton, peanuts and other crops by more than a month. Ida's rain and wind further hindered frantic farmers desperate to get crops out of the ground and to market.

"Farmers had been so far behind, this put them in a worse situation than they were already in," said Greg Gibson, public relations coordinator for the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation. He said Ida mostly affected farmers in the southeastern section of the state.

Jeff Helms, communications director for the Alabama Farmers Federation, said harvest operations already were delayed by one of the wettest Octobers on record.