VIDALIA — The year 2009 was one of ups and downs for local farmers.

Producers began the year still smarting from the destruction wrought on the 2008 crop by Hurricane Gustav, but in January and February, commodity prices were up, and — while cotton acreage was expected to be down due to higher input costs — soybean and rice acreage in the area were expected to grow.

By March, farmers had been told that, while federal funds would be available to recover from the fall 2008 hurricanes, it would be late fall before they would see those funds.

Regardless of previous losses, the spring crop went in, and through April things went well.

By May, experts had documented that soybean acreage was up by 15 percent regionally, and local farmers were no exception. And while cotton was up 15 percent in Mississippi, in Adams County almost none had been planted.

That was the month things began to go wrong. In early May, a freak windstorm that brought 70 mile-per-hour winds with it hit the Miss-Lou’s crops. The plants that were still young bent but did not break in the storm, while more mature corn stands broke off at the ground due to wind and hail damage.

By mid-month, the Mississippi River, which had been flirting with the flood stage for some time, began to creep into the low-lying areas of Adams County, and inch-by-inch it claimed one row after another of the crops planted there.

In June, the river fell, but something else didn’t — rain. By mid-July, when rain started falling again, those who had irrigation systems were doing well for themselves, but those who relied on rain had fields full of brown, dried crops that — if salvageable — had taken a hit in quality and yield.

By the end of August, it was obvious that this year’s harvest would not be what had been expected.

September rolled around, and the harvest began, and while it wasn’t great, it was still good all things considered.

But then it started raining, delaying the harvest for weeks. Just when it would dry out enough to where machines could be brought in, it started raining again.

By October, the delay in the harvest had again affected the quality and yield of what had been left in the fields, and some area farmers were looking at a second year of almost complete loss.

In Adams County, the areas that had been flooded in the spring had been replanted in mid-summer, and that crop was maturing and ready for harvest just as the rains quit.

But November brought an uncharacteristic fall rise in the Mississippi River, and growers were left to harvest what they could as the waters receded.

By the end of November and the beginning of December, the entire Miss-Lou had been declared an agricultural disaster by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Farmers are eligible for low-interest loans and some will qualify for grants to help make up for the losses.

But in the meantime, it’s time to do equipment maintenance to prepare to head to the fields for another year.