DENVER (Reuters) - Colorado farmers and ranchers are bracing for widespread damage to the agriculture industry, one of the state's leading economic engines, from deadly floodwaters that already have caused property losses estimated at nearly $2 billion.

The main concern is for the state's No. 1 cash crop, corn, which yields between 140 million and 180 million bushels annually, most of it for cattle feed, according to the growers' trade association,Colorado Corn.

Cornfields along the flooded South Platte River could be lost if water that has swamped low-lying prairie fails to drain away before the October harvest, said Brent Boydston, vice president of public policy for the Colorado Farm Bureau.

"The corn will rot … if it's underwater that long," Boydston said, adding that waterlogged hay crops could become moldy and be ruined as well.

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