(Cameron) Oct. 1, 2004 - The Calhoun County fields of the Perrow family should be busy right now with cotton prime for picking. Drake Perrow says it's two weeks into harvest time and not one bud is plucked, "We have not started...four hurricanes have not hit us directly, but we've gotten a lot of rain out of all of it."    
  
The Perrow family has farmed the scenic land in Cameron for ten generations. Drake says recent storms have left cotton too wet to pick, "When it's ready, and ready to be picked, you want to get it as soon as you can, because quality will start decreasing as time goes on."
    
Agriculture consultant Eddie Miller demonstrated for News 10 that heavy rain causes some cotton never to bloom, "If you have several days of rain, the cotton will rot inside. And these bulbs here are several signs of that. It's not going to open."

Another effect of the storms is it causes some cotton to fall to the ground. Farmers say a few pieces fall every year, but they lost more this year because of the heavy rain. The good news is once the cotton is dry, the harvest can be picked, saved and sold.
   
Drake says that's as long as there isn't another strong storm, "It would fall out. I'd say you'd lose 25% of this crop then, plus the effect on quality, too, it would be terrible."

It all comes down to the next few weeks.

By Jennifer Miskewicz
Posted 8:11pm by BrettWitt