Rains delay harvest posted Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012 @ 1:11 pm  E-mail Story |  Print Story  The harvest season -- nearing completion -- was interrupted by heavy rains over the weekend. Seab Brown of the LSU AgCenter said the soybean and rice harvests are 90 percent complete, while the cotton harvest is 60 percent complete. "We certainly didn't need that much rain on the cotton," Brown said. "Some of the defoliated cotton is now on the ground." More than five inches was recorded in most areas on Saturday and Sunday with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recording 5.25 inches -- 3.55 inches on Saturday and 1.70 inches on Sunday -- at the Jonesville Locks & Dam on Black River. Brown said overall yields "are some of the best we've seen in years, and that's true for the whole region." He said soybean farmers are averaging yields of 40 to 50 bushels per acre on dryland (not irrigated) land, while irrigated crops are yielding 50 bushels plus per acre, depending on soil type. "Moisture at harvest time is the worst enemy of soybeans," Brown said. "The wetter it is the longer it takes to dry and it is damaging." The corn harvest is complete, he said, and yields averaged 190 bushels per acre on dryland corn and 200 to 240 bushels per acre on irrigated land. "We don't have the figures on the cotton harvest at this time," he said. Figures released recently from the Farm Service Agency show the following acreage was planted in crops in Concordia this farming season: Soybeans, 73,137 acres; corn, 25,387; cotton, 20,286; milo, 17,140; and rice, 10,608. For the full story, subscribe to the The Concordia Sentinel's NEW E-Edition!