DAWSON - Georgia farmers hustled to harvest as much of their corn crop as possible Thursday before the arrival of possibly damaging winds and heavy rain spawned by Tropical Storm Fay's track through northern Florida over the next few days.

Al Breedlove, who grows 300 acres of corn and harvests for other farmers in southwest Georgia's Terrell County, said his customers are normally antsy when they have a crop ready for harvest, but with Fay expected to bring 4 to 6 inches of rain and winds of up to 25 mph to southern Georgia, they're more concerned than usual.

High winds can topple the corn stalks and heavy rain could spawn a disease known as ear rot.

Breedlove said he doesn't worry about the weather, but is running his combines into the night to help gather what could be a $212 million crop for Georgia farmers.

"For me, it's just another day's work," he said during a cell-phone interview as he moved his equipment to a new field.

"You can't predict the weather."

But he acknowledged that others are concerned. "Everybody wants it at one time," he said.

With higher corn prices, spurred by the interest in ethanol as an alternative fuel, Georgia farmers planted 450,000 acres last year, the largest acreage in at least five years. They planted 320,000 acres this year, according to the Georgia Agricultural Statistics Service.

A cool spring and hot, dry summer has already hurt the crop, especially the 45 percent that lacks irrigation. As of Aug. 17, the Statistics Service rated the crop 7 percent very poor, 18 percent poor, 31 percent fair, 35 percent good and 9 percent excellent.

"It's obviously not as good as it was last year," said Dewey Lee, a University of Georgia corn specialist. "We had a very tough summer. This storm is not going to help us. It just makes it that much more difficult ... during the harvest."

With fewer acres and weather adversities, growers are expected to harvest 44.8 million bushels this year, 23 percent less than last year, according to the Statistics Service.

Charles Lamb, the University of Georgia's Extension Coordinator for Terrell County, said corn planted early has been ready to harvest for about two weeks and farmers, concerned that 3 to 4 inches of rain could delay the harvest for a week, want to get it out of the field.

"Any time corn gets to the harvest stage, farmers are anxious," he said. "They don't know what weather situation we'll have."

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