Beaufort County farmers are scurrying to harvest crops before rain and wind associated with Hurricane Matthew damages them.

With the county ranked as the No. 2 county in the state in terms of soybean production, there are many acres of those crops and other agricultural concerns in peril as the storm threatens the region, according to area agricultural officials. In 2014 in Beaufort County, crops alone resulted in $86.8 million in cash receipts, according to state agricultural data.

“A lot of guys are going right now,” said Rod Gurganus, director of Beaufort County Agricultural Extension, on Wednesday. “The corn crop, for the most part is out. There have been a few guys still harvesting, but most of the acres are off the corn. Right now, it’s soybeans and cotton. Generally speaking, most of our soybean crop is still not ready, but we do have some early maturing varieties that are ready.”

Gurganus said farmers have been busy picking soybeans this week in anticipation of the looming storm.

“If it does rain on them once they’re ready to harvest, the quality just goes down hill. We saw that last year with the two, two-and-a-half-week event that we had. With all the water we had, it just ruined that early soybean crop,” Gurganus said. “Cotton is in the same boat. The cotton that’s ready to harvest is going to degrade quickly if not picked before the rain and wind get here. The acres out there that are ready to harvest are in a vulnerable state. If they stay out there and get wet for a long period of time, the seeds will germinate in the boll and you just have all these quality issues.”

Currently, soybeans and cotton are in a critical stage, Gurganus said, adding that farmers do have crop insurance to rely on if needed. Heavy rainfall and prolonged wetness are factors that could adversely affect quality of crops still in the field, he noted. Last fall’s wet conditions, according to Gurganus, cost Beaufort County farmers about $1 million in revenue.

“Crop insurance is in place, but it’s a different ball game than what it used to be. So, for the most part, most of the guys are going to try, right now, to get it in while they can and rely on the insurance if it gets so bad they can’t get it in. It’s there, but you don’t really want to rely on it,” Gurganus said.

If Matthew’s track shifts to the east, “That would be a blessing,” he said.

Shawn Harding, owner if Southside Farms outside of Chocowinity and a director on the North Carolina Farm Bureau’s board of directors, is one of those farmer racing to get in crops ahead of Matthew’s effects.

“We’re at the end of corn harvest. Everybody’s trying to get all the corn out they can. That’s the No. 1 priority,” Harding said Wednesday. “At Southside, we finished our corn (Tuesday). We’re in pumpkin season. So, we were getting pumpkins out (Tuesday) as much as we could.”

Harding said the farmers’ mantra this week is a simple one. “If it’s ready, get it out of the field,” he said. The more crops harvested before they are affected by heavy rain and strong winds, the better financially for farmers, Harding said.

“Depending on the track, depending on how much rain we get — we’ve been super-saturated the last few weeks — so we’ve had a rough harvest season, anyway. So, it’s time to get things out of the field, if you can,” Harding said. “Of course, there’s a lot of preparations like the homeowners are doing. You get your generators fired up. Greenhouses have to be checked to make sure they’re fine. There’s a lot of preparation to do on the farm, which makes sort of it doubly hard for us because you’re trying to harvest on one hand and then trying to prepare on the other.”