Farmers across Houston County spent the summer preparing for what they expected to be a busy fall thanks to a "bumper" or larger than expected cotton crop. Then came Hurricane Michael. Hurricane Michael flattened fences and destroyed thousands of acres of timberland. Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) declared Geneva, Pike, Barbour, Henry and Houston counties as primary natural disaster areas. It means farmers in those counties now are eligible for emergency loans from the Farm Service Agency (FSA). Some crops in the region didn't fare better than others. Jeffcoat said cotton bolls blown off their stems by Michael's winds weren't able to be harvested. The results were significant. In some fields where Jeffcoat expected to harvest 1200-1500 pounds of cotton, the yield was only 100 pounds. "It's nothing I can do about it. You'll lose some on cotton but not that much." Farmers have spent the five weeks since Hurricane Michael's landfall salvaging what they can. Some like Jeffcoat have crop insurance which reimburses them for a portion of their losses. To add insult to injury, He said rain the last two weeks has forced him to harvest his peanut crops later than expected. "It's not the end of the world. I've had droughts before and losses and in farming. You just start over again next year." Source - https://abc3340.com