Relentless spring rains leave Southern U.S. farmers with historic prevent plant losses

Southern U.S. farmers are confronting unprecedented planting challenges this year due to persistent rainfall that has rendered vast tracts of farmland unworkable. The situation, which began deteriorating in early spring, has now escalated into what growers describe as a crisis threatening their livelihoods and the regional agricultural economy.

Producers across Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and southern Missouri report that weeks of heavy rain have prevented them from planting critical crops such as cotton, soybeans, and rice. In many cases, previously planted fields have been inundated, forcing growers to consider costly replanting or to abandon fields altogether.

Wettest spring in over a century

“It’s been a challenge,” said Franklin Fogleman, a Marion, Arkansas, farmer whose family has been in agriculture since 1849. “We’ve faced rain since the first of April that is unprecedented.” According to Fogleman, the early start to planting in late March was wiped out by more than 13 inches of rainfall in early April, followed by another 5 inches in May.

As of early June, Fogleman estimated that around 1,500 acres of rice would remain unplanted, and another 700 to 800 acres would need to be replanted—many of them likely too late for an economically viable crop. “The window has basically closed on us,” he said.

Similar struggles are reported across the Delta. Mississippi farmer Robert Agostinelli managed to plant just 550 of his planned 2,300 acres of cotton. “This has never happened before,” he said. “I’ve been farming for 41 years, and this has never happened.”

Agostinelli’s insurance, which included Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO), does not fully cover prevent plant losses. “Looking back on it, if we would have thought this was a possibility, we probably would have taken out different insurance,” he said.

Economic consequences deepen

Andy Graves, a crop consultant in Clarksdale, Mississippi, said many farmers in the region are facing potentially unrecoverable losses. “These guys are hurting. They’re hurting bad,” he said. “We needed a home run, and we’re not going to get it.”

Cotton planting in his area is around 65% complete, but much of that acreage has received up to 6 inches of rain shortly after sowing. Weed pressure is also mounting, made worse by the recent restrictions on dicamba use in soybean crops.

Graves noted that while weather has driven the current crisis, the underlying economics of farming were already fragile. “We’ve had two record yields up here with cotton, soybeans and corn the last couple of years, but they’re financial losses,” he said. “Now the prices are lower this year, and we’re faced with what we got now with weather.”

Beyond the farms themselves, the crisis is threatening the broader rural economy. “It rolls downhill,” said Graves. “If they’re out of business, I’m out of the business. We’ve got gins, airports, chemical applicators—we have a community.”

Worse than a drought

Growers say the wet conditions are more difficult to manage than drought, since they prevent any field access. “In our area of the Delta, we have irrigation. So, when it’s dry, we can cure that problem,” Fogleman said. “When your crops are underwater… there’s really nothing that you can do.”

For cotton in particular, the economics were already grim. “The price is so low that if we farmed it, we will lose even more money,” Agostinelli said. “It’s very stressful, and if there’s no assistance coming, I can just see a lot of farmers going out this year.”

Despite widespread financial and emotional strain, farmers say they are not ready to give up—but the resilience is wearing thin. “These are trying times and people are feeling the impacts of it,” Fogleman said. “We’ve gone beyond just losing money now that we’re to the point of losing the farm.”