CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) – Agriculture officials say it’s too soon to know if recent flooding in southeast Missouri damaged the area’s winter wheat crop.

Anthony Ohmes, agronomy specialist at the University of Missouri Extension, told The Southeast Missourian (http://bit.ly/1PteKny ) that wheat crops can handle being submerged when it’s cold. But he says the warmer weather in the region in December may have made the wheat less prepared for being under water.

Ohmes says it will be tough to know how the crops will do until the weather warms up.

Dave Reinbott, agriculture business specialist at the University of Missouri Extension, says it could be worse. He says if the flooding happened in April or May, farmers could have lost a variety of crops, such corn and soybeans too.