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Farmers, ranchers suffering from drought
Published September 20, 2009
Farmers are plowing under what’s left of their crops and ranchers either are preparing to buy hay or are shipping cattle to greener pastures as they suffer through the effects of this year’s continuing drought.
“It’s going to be pretty rough this winter,” rancher Dave Scott said. “There’s very little hay made. Everyone is going to have to hunker down to get through this winter, and hopefully we won’t have a severe one.”
Even though recent rain has some grass growing again, it’s not enough to graze, Scott said.
He and other cattle raisers already are importing hay from Oklahoma and Kansas for the winter.
Some ranchers might move animals to pastures further north, where rainfall was more plentiful this year.
Brazoria County is among the worst hit, but is far from alone when it comes to drought. Much of the state is well behind when it comes to rainfall, with some counties calling this the worst drought in history.
About 16 percent of the state — all in the southern and central parts of Texas — is classified under the most extreme two categories of drought, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s latest drought monitor map released Thursday. That’s down from last week’s 25 percent, but still well above 2.4 percent from a year ago. A small section of Hawaii is the only other U.S. area classified as under severe drought.
BETTER THAN IT WAS
Locally, the Keetch-Byram Drought Index, which measures soil moisture, was at 590 Friday, still in the severe range, Brazoria County Assistant Emergency Manager Steve Rosa said.
The drought index has been above 700 much of the summer.
“Anything is better that it was,” Rosa said.
So far this month, 3.45 inches of rain have fallen at the National Weather Service station at the Brazoria County Airport near Angleton, a weather service spokeswoman said. The heaviest showers were last Wednesday, when 2.20 inches were recorded. Normal rainfall for September is 7.49 inches.
But it will take substantially more to end the drought and lift a burn ban in place since June, Rosa said. Rainfall in the county remains about 28 inches below normal for the year.
“It will take at least 4 to 6 inches to get us out of the burn ban,” Rosa said.
‘THE CROP IS GONE’
Farmers are plowing under what’s left of the plants in their fields after harvesting about 35 percent of a normal crop, farmer Jimmy Prihoda said. Rain two months ago would have helped, but precipitation over the past two weeks came way too late, he said.
“It’s too late,” Prihoda said. “The crop is gone. We’ve got cracks that are 3 inches and a foot deep up around Damon. It’s time to get the ground prepared for next year.”
Prihoda grew cotton and milo on property from West Columbia to Damon. On Friday, as clouds gathered in the sky, he and a crew worked near Damon to turn a milo crop under.
“We need at least 10 to 12 inches of rain right now,” he said. “Not at one time, but 2 to 4 inches at a time. Winter needs to be wet, and we could use some cold weather (to kill) insects. But we don’t want a real cold winter because that would be hard on the cattle.”
The drought that began in September 2007 has cost an estimated $3.6 billion in crop and livestock losses in the nation’s
No. 2 agriculture state. It has dried up waterways, forced more than 340 public water systems to restrict water use and killed hundreds of thousands of trees.
MAKING IT WORK
Many ranchers are selling weaker stock ahead of the colder months, Scott said.
“The green is coming on, but it’s a little bit late this year to be much relief,” Scott said. “Most people are culling their cattle down as they can. You don’t want to feed anything that’s not productive.”
A dry winter will continue the current shortage of grazing and could lead to poor crops next year, said Corrie Bowen, Brazoria County extension agent. An unusually wet winter will be “hard on cattle” and lead to mud or standing water, which would cover some available grass, Bowen said.
Rain so far in September has produced another problem.
“If things weren’t bad enough, we have a severe army worm outbreak right now,” he said. “If it’s lush forage, they’re eating it. The road is paved for a rough winter.”
While farmers and ranchers have their hands full dealing with today, they accept feast and famine as part of agriculture.
“You just take what the good Lord gives you and try to make it work,” Prihoda said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
John Lowman is a reporter for The Facts. Contact him at 979-849-8581.
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