News-Record.com

Last week's big freeze didn't do any farmer any favors. And if you were one of the farmers who, like those mentioned in Lex's story, didn't have irrigation and lost your crop well, bad is bad.

But relative to other parts of the state Guilford and Rockingham counties were bright spots on the crop report, according to the Department of Agriculture.

Of the $112 million in estimated damage reported statewide, Guilford had just over $79,000 and Rockingham about $150,000. (Stokes County, according to the Ag folks, was one of the few counties that have reported no damage so far.)

The reason the Triad may have escaped relatively unscathed is a matter of crop choice, says Brian Long, a spokesman for the Ag Department.

Down in the Sandhills area, the peach crop got blasted. Out west, it was the Apple trees that were done in. And anyone growing grapes pretty much saw their crop get ravaged.

While the Triad has its share of some of those fruit crops, our farmers are still more into tobacco, soy beans and such, crops that aren't out yet.

"The Triad Region fared far better than most," Long said.

Still, that's small consolation to someone's whose blueberry patch won't produce enough "to make a cobbler out of them."

Still, expect to see state officials moving as fast as their farm-vote-loving-selves can move to get help to those affected.