Despite the four inches of rain and winds from Hurricane Sandy, it’s encouraging to hear that cotton yields are looking better than anticipated.

This is great to hear after you take into account when farmers lost 40 to 50 percent of their cotton after Hurricane Irene in late August 2011.

Over the past few months our farmers have seen increases of yields of all their crops, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture. Predictions of peanuts rose to 3,700 pounds per acre in early October, which is a 400-pound per acre increase from earlier estimates.

Even corn and soybeans saw increases over early forecast estimates, with soybeans bringing in 36 bushels per acre from 540,000 acres and corn bringing in 95 bushels per acre.

Those numbers have to be music to the ears of our local farmers whose livelihood is based on what their crops yield. This is also encouraging news for our economy in uncertain times.