Jim Todd, Mobile County Extension coordinator, brought the two into survey area fields to help determine if cotton farmers had significant agronomic and economic damages from wind and rain damage caused by Hurricane Isidore.

"I visited a number of cotton fields in Mobile County within days of Isidore's passing through," says Todd. "I believed it would be helpful for our farmers to get an objective assessment of damage from some Extension specialists."

"In Mobile County, we were looking for a good harvest. Because of Isidore, farmers have had anywhere from 60 to 250 pounds of cotton per acre blown to the ground," says Todd.

In addition to inspecting fields in Mobile County, Goodman and Monks also visited farms in Baldwin, Escambia and Monroe counties.

To anyone passing fields beside a highway, the cotton appears ragged, windblown and uneven. The full extent of damage may easily be missed in casual observation. A closer examination reveals that a major economic disaster has occurred in these four counties.

"It appears that extensive damage has already occurred, and the stage is set for even more damage to result from Isidore indirectly, as subsequent weather events unfold to aggravate the existing situation," says Monks.

Goodman says that the damage was generally, but not universally more severe nearer the coast.

"However, one of the most severely damaged fields was in Monroe County, at the northern limit of the damage area," says Goodman. "We observed that the earlier fields suffered the most immediate damage. Damage levels to later fields with more unopened bolls could, due to additional severe weather, ultimately exceed that level of economic impact. Damage was generally more severe in fields with higher pre-storm yield potential."

Winds were not strong enough to completely strip the open cotton from the fields or to dismantle cotton modules. Cotton modules are compacted, large bales of picked cotton ready to be transported to cotton gins.

Goodman says closer examination revealed moderate to severe damage in almost every field the Extension professionals visited.

Damage to early cotton (characterized by mostly open bolls) was typically a combination of wind and boll rot. In some fields, cotton had been knocked out of the boll and was on the ground with seeds sprouting.

"Some sprouting of cottonseed was evident in cotton still on the plant," says Monks. "Extensive boll rot was already evident in many fields, especially fields that originally had high yield potential."

It is likely that cotton lint still marginally attached to the plant will fall before it can be harvested. Additional boll rot can be expected, and harvesting losses will be excessive.

"Farmers are going to have quality losses from boll rot and cottonseed sprouting. Additional quality losses could occur due to plant regrowth," says Goodman. "Those kinds of quality losses are going to cost farmers money because their cotton won't command the same prices as high quality cotton. Also, the value of cottonseed will be significantly lower, and cottonseed will be lighter because of sprouting while still in the boll."

Later cotton, characterized by few open bolls at the time of the storm, was heavily defoliated and twisted by Isidore's winds. Monks says the resulting root damage and leaf area loss will limit further development of many of these bolls.

"While most of these bolls may eventually open, both quality and quantity of lint produced will be affected," says Goodman.

Fields with later cotton face the possibility of further damage from additional tropical storm fronts that move out of the Gulf of Mexico.

Goodman says another complicating factor in assessing the damage is the impact Isidore will have on harvest timeliness.

"As a direct result of this storm, all of the cotton in these counties is ready or will be ready to be defoliated and harvested within a week," says Goodman. "There is not the capacity to harvest, to transport or to gin all of this crop before the weather causes further quality losses. Even without another storm, we are going to see significant losses in quantity and quality of the crop because farmers just will not be able to get it picked and to gins in a timely fashion."