After years of flooding mixed with bouts of drought, Warren County farmers are relishing bountiful rain and eagerly awaiting harvest.

During the past four years, murky water from the swelling Mississippi River covered the Chickasaw Road farm operated by Doug Jeter and Tom McKnight.

With steady rain but no flooding, Jeter and McKnight already have 2,400 acres of thriving soybeans .

“Last year, we hadn’t even planted yet,” McKnight said. “It’s probably the best stand I’ve seen in years over the whole place.”

During the 2011 flood, water rose 20 feet in their shop that sits several hundred yards from the bank of the river. They tried to store equipment in a boat tethered to the rafters of the building, but the boat overturned.

“Somehow the rope got tangled,” Jeter said.

When the property wasn’t under water, crops were dying of thirst.

Less than an inch of rain was recorded for June in 2008, 2009 and 2011, according to the National Weather Service. Only 2.4 inches of rain fell in June 2010. So far this month, inches of rain were recorded at Vicksburg Water Plant.