CROWLEY, La. (KLFY) – It’s been six months since the historic flood and rice farmers are just now seeing the damage as they prepare the 2017 crop.

Back in August, farmers watched 24 inches of rainfall on their crops in just 36 hours.

Acadia Parish Rice Farmer Al Cramer said rice that was saturated in the flood is being used in this year’s crop.

“The rice that was planted in 2016, some of that rice is being used to seed the fields in 2017, so we are having to use the crop that went through the flood to plant the crop for 2017.”

LSU Agcenter Rice Research Station Director Steve Linscombe said the rice affected by the flood had to go through a long testing process before they could determine the impact.

“It takes several months before we would have an idea that this problem existed, so it has popped within the last month or so.”

Linscombe said his tests are showing low germination.

“The germ of rice is the amount of seeds that sprout when you plant the seed back,” said Cramer.

“Currently the state seed law requires that at least 80 of those hundred germinate, and we’re seeing lots of seed where that is lower than 80 percent down to the mid-sixties,” said Linscombe.

That means farmers will have to plant extra crops this year.

“Farmers will have to plant a little bit more per acre, as far as seed is concerned, to compensate for the lower germination seed.”

Linscombe said the state is trying to help farmers by allowing germination lower than 80 percent.

“Our farmers are very resilient. This is just another issue they are dealing with, they deal with issues every year. We just need a good crop, good environmental conditions, and we need the price to go up as much as it can go up.”