Front Page || Main Index || Corpus Christi News || Business || Texas || Sports || Entertainment || Selena
Thursday, Aug. 13, 1998
Heat yields worst cotton crop in 20 years
Lack of rain makes harvest poor in 1998
By JEFFREY TOMICH AND ANNA M. TINSLEY
Staff WriterState and local agricultural officials say the ongoing drought in the Coastal Bend and across Texas may result in one of the worst cotton crops in 20 years.
But all crops are suffering from the scorching heat and lack of rain, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Rick Perry said Wednesday.
Compared with last year, cotton is expected to be down 40 percent, grain sorghum down 43 percent, cotton down 29 percent and hay down 51 percent, Perry said.
``These numbers tell just how severe this drought has been and the toll it's taking on agriculture and our producers,'' Perry said.
Production figures are based on grower surveys conducted by the Texas Agricultural Statistics Service around Aug. 1.
In Nueces County, where producers recently wrapped up their 1998 harvest, crop production was likewise devastated by the lack of rainfall. Still, local agriculture officials say things could have been worse.
``It's still a wreck, it's just not as bad of a wreck as we thought it was going to be,'' said Harvey Buehring, agricultural extension agent for Nueces County.
Early rains provided subsurface moisture for thirsty plants. Haze from Mexican and Central American wildfires aided crops by helping them retain moisture during growth stages in May and early-June, Buehring said.
Crop yields for Nueces County producers are nonetheless disappointing. Buehring's estimates are:
-- Cotton: Average yields of 325 pound per acre ranging to 425 pounds in areas closer to the coast. Average yield in Nueces County during a typical year is about 520 pounds per acre.
-- Corn: 25 to 40 bushels per acre. That's less than half of the 70 to 80 bushels per acre harvested during an average year.
-- Grain sorghum: Yields should average about 2,200 to 2,500 pounds per acre - about half typical production of 4,000 to 4,500 pounds per acre.
Sales of agricultural commodities from Nueces County are estimated to drop by nearly half to a projected $45 million from $85 million in 1997, Buehring said. The countywide economic impact of that $40 million loss in production is estimated to be $112 million.
``The other story those numbers don't tell is the personal financial problems for the family farmers that were burdened with debt carryover from the 1996 drought,'' he said.
``Now, with these losses, that is going to put a lot of operators that had carryover debt from the last two seasons in jeopardy of not being able to get refinanced.''
The Coastal Bend and other parts of the state have suffered through a drought and heat wave for months. Some areas of the state got rain earlier this month, but rainfall is still down statewide because the state received below-normal rainfall from April to June.
Texas, where cotton is the state's largest cash crop, still will be the nation's top cotton producer this year despite the losses, said Beverly Boyd, an agriculture department spokeswoman.
``California is the No. 2 producer, but they had all the rains earlier that hurt their crops this year,'' she said.
Since 1880, Texas has led all other states in cotton production. The annual cotton harvest is about one-third of the total production in the United States.
This year's cotton production is estimated at 3.1 million bales, the smallest cotton crop since 1989. Last year, Texas farmers last year harvested 5.3 million cotton bales, valued at $1.6 billion, Boyd said.
``Right now, we're looking at almost 2 million acres of cotton being abandoned across Texas because of the severe conditions,'' Perry said.
The status of Texas' other leading crops:
-- Corn: This year's production is estimated at 175.8 million bushels, compared with last year's record-high 248.4 million bushels.
-- Grain sorghum: This year's production is estimated at 59.2 million hundredweights, down from last year's 104.1 million hundredweights. This is the smallest crop since 1953. Texas producers also planted fewer acres of sorghum this year.
-- Hay: This year is expected to yield 5.3 million tons, less than half of last year's 10.8 million tons.
Early estimates show that the drought has cost Texas farmers more than $1.75 billion, which could have a ripple effect of more than $5 billion on the state's economy, Perry said.
Officials have said this year's drought may be a worse disaster for Texas agriculture than the drought of 1996, when farmers lost $1.9 billion.Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web