Ida's rain delays Alabama cotton, soy, peanut crops

* Ida dumped up to 6 inches of rain on Alabama fields

* Pressures farmers trying to bring in delayed harvests

By Verna Gates

BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Nov 11 (Reuters) - Rain dumped by Tropical Storm Ida on Alabama's fields has further delayed harvesting of cotton, soybean and peanut crops, threatening producers' yields and profits in the southern U.S. state, farmers said on Wednesday.

Ida, which at its peak had been a late-season Category 2 hurricane, dissipated to a tropical depression on Tuesday after coming ashore at Mobile, Alabama, from the Gulf of Mexico.

While the weakening storm appeared to have caused only limited flooding and minimal power outages, it dropped as much as 6 inches of rain on local cotton, soy and peanut fields, worsening the effects of an already wet November.

"Rain keeps farmers out of the fields," said Rick Wiggins, who works Wiggins Farm with his father and son near Andalusia, Alabama. Farmers said harvesting was behind by six to eight weeks.

By this time of year, 75 percent of the cotton crop should be harvested in Alabama, one of the top 10 cotton-producing U.S. states, but only 33 percent had been baled so far, said Jeffrey Helms, spokesman for the Alabama Farmers Federation.

Only 50 percent of the peanut crop was out of the ground, compared with the 90 percent that should have been harvested by now, while local soybean harvests were down by 25 percent and between 20 percent and 50 percent of the soy crop was graded as damaged, Helms said.

Drenched, muddy fields impeded the access of harvesting machines, and high moisture content in plants prevented them from maturing properly and invited fungal growth, said David Weaver, professor of Agronomy and Soils at Auburn University.

"The cotton has to be dry for a cotton picker to work," Weaver said.

Small farmers compose the largest segment of the economy of Alabama, with a $9 billion contribution, and agribusiness employs 21 percent of the state workforce, totaling 476,000 jobs, according to ALFA.

The rains brought by Ida had increased the pressure on struggling farmers. "Between delay and damage, we are riding a fine line. If I can't get it out of the field, it doesn't matter what the price is," said local farmer Sammy Gibbs. (Editing by Pascal Fletcher and David Gregorio)