Hurricane Sandy put a damper on wheat and cotton crops locally.
Some of the wheat planted last week in Virginia Beach will likely be affected by the rain blitz, according to Roy Flanagan, agriculture extension agent at the Virginia Cooperative Extension.
"We had a lot of flooding while the storm was going on," Flanagan said.
Water may have pooled on top of the newly planted seeds once the soil became over-saturated, he said. The result could be a "spotty stand," with empty sections of the field.
"We wouldn't get the ideal number of plants established," Flanagan said.
He will know how much of the wheat crop is not germinating in about a week or so, he said.
Overall though, he said the Beach's farms fared well.
"As far as wide-spread crop damage, we were very fortunate," Flanagan said.
Agricultural damage from Sandy was minimal in Chesapeake. Potential impact may be to 2,000 acres of small grains (wheat, barley, oats) that had been planted.
"We still have time to replant if seed does not germinate," said Watson Lawrence, agriculture extension agent.
Over in Suffolk and Western Tidewater, where 60 percent of the cotton crop is left to be harvested, Hurricane Sandy could have been disastrous.
"We dodged the bullet," said Johnny Parker of Commonwealth Gin in Windsor. He estimates that the loss will only be in the hundreds of pounds. Hunter Frame has also been assessing the damage and is seeing cotton on the ground since the storm has passed.
"The rain blew some of the lint out of the open cotton bolls," said Frame, field crops agronomist at the Tidewater Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Suffolk.
He added that farmers are eager to get back in the fields and harvest what remains.
"They're waiting for things to dry out," he said.
