Scotland County farmers enjoyed better weather than they have seen in two seasons.

Now if only the market would be so kind.

According to the North Carolina Climate Control Office, the county saw more than 36 inches of rain between January and October of this year and only endured 54 days of temperatures at 90 degrees or above.

Cotton is being gathered right now, and the ample rainfall the area enjoyed in August is yielding 750 to 1,000 pounds of cotton per acre for Edens Farms.

“I wish they were all like this,” says Edgar Edens, whose Hoke County based farm has several acres in Laurinburg. “There would be more acreage planted by area farmers if they could see yields like this.”

Edens also operates the Hoke-Robeson Cotton Gin and adds that cotton production is less than half of what it was three years ago. That is mostly due to the fact that the price of cotton has wallowed down in the 65-cents-per-pound range.

Allen McLaurin, farm manager of Z.V. Pate Inc. in Laurel Hill, also credits the rain for his “above average crop” and he anticipates bolder planting by area farmers next year.

“It is not so much that we saw more rain as it is that we received rain at the ideal times,” McLaurin said. “We will probably see an increase in (cotton) acreage next year.”

At the moment, though, Tropical Storm Ida is providing complications.

About two-thirds of Edens’ cotton crop is harvested, but the deluge of rain southeastern North Carolina endured Tuesday and Wednesday reduces the grade of what has yet to be harvested from the fields. Edens is not worried because the area has yet to see all the rain it can handle.

“We’re still 9 1/2 inches below normal. The land is dry and it should absorb this water. We get a couple of sunny days and it will be fine.”

McLaurin is a little concerned about the amount of rain Ida is leaving behind because it not only delays the planting of the wheat crop, but it’s time to get the soybeans out of the field.

“Soybeans, like any kind of grain, can develop a fungus if left the field too long.”

Unlike many crops, the price of soybeans is finally up to ten dollars a bushel as of last month. In September soybeans had fallen below nine dollars.

Z.V. Pate also has a peanut crop to consider. The price of that crop has see-sawed due to this year’s salmonella outbreak and warehouse fires in North Carolina and Virginia. Currently the price is up, but that doesn’t help as farmers are contracted at a fixed price at the beginning of the growing season. The only way to benefit from the upswing is if farmers have surplus beyond what they were contracted to grow.

There is one crop that continues to sell at the same price. Dan and Tina Smith of Cypress Bend Vineyards in Wagram saw their 30 acres of muscadine vines produce a generous yield.

“We had a great harvest this year,” Tina Smith said. “We had the right combination of rain and sunny days…The taste of the grapes is excellent.”

In fact, the vineyards over produced and thus Cypress Bend is at liberty to sell muscadine tonnage to the Duplin Winery in Rose Hill. The grapes, Smith says, continue to sell for between $550 and $650 per ton.

“People are still enjoying some things in life,” she said. “There has been a little downturn, but nothing that has affected the business so far.”