The agricultural loss from the March flooding across Louisiana could top $15 million, The Associated Press reports.
LSU AgCenter economist Kurt Guidry says the figures are preliminary because reports are coming in daily from farmers and producers. Up to 40,000 acres of corn were covered by the high water, he says.
“The corn losses occurred across north Louisiana and into the Mississippi Delta region,” he says. The total loss of corn is estimated between $3 and $4 million, says Guidry.
Farmers in north Louisiana, where the majority of the state’s corn crop is grown, have a couple of weeks left in the optimum planting window, according to LSU AgCenter recommendations. If dry weather takes hold, many acres could get planted.
“If the farmers want to replant, they have until the middle of April,” Guidry says.
He also says the cost to replant runs $130 to $150 an acre. Many fields remain under water and those will not be replanted, he adds.
Earlier in the year, experts were predicting a statewide increase in corn acres. Forecasts had corn at more than 500,000 acres, but the number is trending downward because of the wet conditions.
“We’ve got water in places we’ve never seen it,” says Dustin Morris, a Richland Parish farmer whose corn seed was washed away. Morris says he is replanting the 300 acres he lost and about 5,000 acres that hadn’t been planted before the storms. “We’re lucky we only lost 300 acres,” he says.
Another farmer, Chris Johnson of Richland Parish, says he is replanting 1,700 acres.
Louisiana’s annual corn crop is valued at $266 million, according to state agricultural officials.
Also, based on figures from different parishes, “400 to 500 head of cattle died in the flood,” Guidry says.
Pasture land also was lost, and some still remains under water.
