Harvey damaged cotton in Texas (USDA photo)

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Mike Conaway (R-TX) toured south Texas last week with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to see first hand some of the agricultural damage caused by Hurricane Harvey.

Conaway and Perdue viewed the area by helicopter and visited farms that were anticipating a record crop before the snow white fields of cotton were covered in flood waters from the storm. “When that water settled out, it basically coated all those plants, cotton bolls about to be harvested, with mud,” said Conaway, who adds that the smell from the rotting cotton is “pretty obnoxious.”

Check out the USDA photo album of the tour and listen to these comments from Conaway, provided by his office. Rep. Conaway comments on Harvey damage