Drought hurt Limestone County’s cotton so much this summer that thousands of acres have been destroyed without being harvested.

That was the word this week from Crop Weather, a publication that comes out weekly on behalf of Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries Commissioner Ron Sparks.

Limestone County Farm Service Agency Coordinator Shane Seay said several thousand acres of cotton in Limestone have been examined by insurance adjusters and a decision made on reimbursement. He said the cotton was cut down and destroyed.

Limestone County is the top cotton producing county in the state with Madison County coming in a close second. Experts said drought has all but killed most of the cotton in both counties this year.

Limestone County farmers planted approximately 70,000 acres this past spring and much of that was replanted, officials said. The early planted cotton that survived or was not replanted appears to be in worse condition than fields that were planted later or replanted. Local agricultural experts have already predicted that much of Limestone County’s cotton that survived will make less than a bale to the acre which is about half that of last year’s crop.