By Clint Thompson
The Georgia Cotton Commission and University of Georgia Extension Cotton Team advise Georgia growers to consult their crop insurance providers about the state of this year’s crop following Hurricane Helene.
Producers are entering harvest season with major question marks about the cotton quality after Helene’s devastating winds left the crop in peril.
“I’d stay in touch with your crop insurance folks, your FSA (Farm Service Agency) office to see what’s going on with all of that kind of stuff,” said Camp Hand, University of Georgia (UGA) Extension cotton agronomist. “The (insurance folks) will tell you if they think you need to pick it or not or whether they’re going to make you pick it. That’s the first conversation that needs to happen. From there is when we’ll start making decisions on what exactly we’re going to do moving forward.”
‘Worse Than I Thought’
Cotton farmers east of I-75 were especially impacted by Helene when the storm moved through South Georgia on Sept. 26 and 27. Hand traveled the region last week and surveyed the crop damage that is extensive and devastating.
“I’d say it’s probably worse than I thought it was going to be; just the overall impacts on agriculture. Of course, there were losses on cotton but just the timber and the pecans and chicken houses; everything. I’m in Midville, and all of these pecan trees in front of the place are on the ground. I just can’t believe how it did. It was devastating,” Hand said.
“I visited a couple of fields on (Sept. 30) where I told growers it’s not even worth picking. We’re going to have to do some fancy figuring on what we’re going to get insurance wise and if it’s going to be worth putting a picker in the field. You start running pickers on stuff that doesn’t have enough cotton on it, you’re just wearing equipment out for nothing and risking it catching on fire. Then you’re talking about losing more than what you were going to lose or have already lost.”