Elizabeth Troval

In Mississippi, rain quickly turned into ice in many parts of the state, freezing power lines and trees, delivering a blow to the state's timber industry, says Keith Coble with Mississippi State University.

And you can't just replace a 12-year-old tree.

In neighboring Louisiana, Mike Della Berto with Louisiana State University says even though farmers just wrapped up sugarcane harvest.

Because you can harvest sugarcane several times, but not if the root freezes beyond repair.

And moving west through Louisiana into Texas, we're in crawfish country.

Nikki Fitzgerald with Texas A&M is keeping an eye on the mud bugs who burrow deep in the ground when it gets cold.

She says the cold weather might actually have a positive effect on what was already looking to be a decent season for crawfish.

But cattle cannot burrow into the ground, which is why economist David Anderson with Texas A&M says during cold snaps, cows, unlike crawfish, get smaller because they're eating food to stay warm, not to add weight.

That can bring down beef production.

Anderson says the storm also hit a lot of poultry-producing regions of the country, not just Texas.

It's an extra expense that can hurt a farmer's bottom line.

I'm Elizabeth Troval for Marketplace.

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