MONTEREY, La. – If you were one of the many local residents praying for rain during the droughts of 1999 and 2000, you can stop now.

That’s according to climatologists and those who work with agriculture in the Miss-Lou. While higher-than-normal rainfall has given most crops a needed boost, it is starting to smother soybeans, said Lee Bean of Angelina Plantation.

&uot;It’s a big turnaround from the events of last year,&uot; Bean said Tuesday. &uot;Then you couldn’t buy rain, but now you can’t buy a sunny day. The soybeans are getting to where they can’t get any oxygen. Still, I’ll take this over last year.&uot;

The area could actually use a few weeks of no rain, said Concordia Parish County Agent Glen Daniels.

&uot;I’ve seen a lot of soybeans starting to get diseases,&uot; said Daniels. He added that soybean farmers, who can get 20 bushels an acre in a usual year, could see their per-acre yields drop by five to 10 bushels an acre this year.

For the months of March through June, Natchez received 7.58 inches of rain compared to 4.19 inches in an average June, according to unofficial totals from the Southern Regional Climate Center in Baton Rouge.

Totals for Concordia Parish have not been compiled but should be close to those of Natchez, said Louisiana State Climatologist Jay Grymes.

The extra moisture has made weeds and grass grow faster, and that usually means decreased crop yields. But the addition of &uot;Roundup Ready&uot; versions of cotton and soybeans has more than made up for that, Daniels said.

Overall, he said the extra rain has been a boom for local crops, including cotton, corn and sorghum.

&uot;For farmers without irrigation, these rains came just at the time when they needed some water on their cotton crop,&uot; Daniels said.

Yields could be as good as 120 bushels per acre for corn, 90 to 100 bushels an acre for grain sorghum and close to 800 pounds per acre for cotton this year if rain eases a little.

Then again, about eight weeks are left until harvest begins for the first of the area’s crops, corn – and much can happen in eight weeks.

&uot;Hopefully, we won’t have a hurricane that brings in heavy rains,&uot; Daniels said. &uot;I’m reluctant to make predictions this early in the season. Mother Nature is a fickle friend.&uot;

The Miss-Lou can expect about 4 to 5 inches of rain this month and about 4 inches of rain in August, which is about typical for those months, Grymes said.