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Farm & Ranch Happenings

published: July 9th 2010
by: Harvey Buehring

“Hurricane Season Keeps South Texas Farmers
On Edge”
    June 21st, the first day of summer,  arrived the day after Father’s Day.  And for those dads who are farmers and ranchers, the situation during the past year miraculously   changed from “gloom and doom” to “cheerful, yet guarded optimism.”  In less than a year the appearance of the South Texas landscape has turned from a dry and dusty desert to a lush, green oasis.  Fervent prayers have been answered.  But when complementing farmers on how great area crops are looking, a common response has been; “ Yes, they look so good it’s almost scary!”. 
    As the final days of June arrive and the South Texas grain harvest is about to begin, farmers in the region are again reminded that they are at the mercy of Mother Nature.  This is hurricane season and keeping a watchful eye on the tropical weather developments is a way of life for coastal farmers.  Learning that computer projection models have “Alex”, the first named tropical de-pression of the 2010 season,  working its way toward deep South Texas and the Northern Mexico’s coastal region can be unsettling to farmers who have one of the best yielding grain crops in more than a de-cade ripening in the fields.     Only time will tell if South Texas farmers will be spared from a damaging blow from this system and what other threats the tropics may produce in the months ahead.
    Summer is always a turning point in South Texas.   In farming areas the grain sorghum crop is maturing rapidly.  The reddish-bronze heads atop the sorghum stalks are  long and full of plump seeds that are sure to boost crop yields across the region.  That is great news for farmers and grain elevator operators who have not seen a “bin- busting” crop in many years.   Last season’s devastating drought resulted in little or no businessfor many of these agribusinesses who provide essential infrastructure to farmers and livestock feeders in the region.    Another weather-related disaster could not only result in major economic hardship for growers but could ring a death toll for many local grain elevators and gins.  They must experience a high volume season to recover from the losses of recent years.
    The weather  developments during the final week of June got me thinking about what an old and  successful farmer/rancher told me over twenty-five years ago.   He said, “Hav-ing a tropical wave heading our way about the first of July always made the grain farmer in me feel weak in the knees.  But when it gave us a couple of inches of rain and no high winds to blow down the milo crop, it always made the cotton farmer and cattleman in me happy because it would put on another quarter bale to the acre on the cotton crop.  That rain would also green up the pastures and keep cows nursing calves in good milk for a few more weeks during the hot summer.  News of an approaching storm is always hard on the nerves, but a tropical system can be a real blessing if you don’t get a direct hit from a ‘big one’.”  Spoken with eternal optimism, a character trait that is essential for agriculturalists who strive to maintain their sanity.
    Earlier I mentioned that a number of farmers had responded; “ The crop looks so good it is almost scary”.  Behind a statement like that is the experience of losing a great crop to unfavorable weather.   For Coastal Bend area grain sorghum farmers 1976 was one of those years.   Two weeks of rainy and overcast days in early July caused extensive sprouting and mold damage to over 750,000 acres of grain sorghum that had an excellent yield potential just days before that disaster started.  Other similar turns of unfavorable weather events at harvest time have made farmers leery about “counting their bushels before they are in the bin”.    
    We don’t always get exactly what we want, but it helps to believe that we are going to get what we need to make a good crop.   After the hardships of last few years, let’s keep praying that the farmers and ranchers along the Texas Gulf Coast will be able to get their crops harvested without any damage from the weather.   I hope enough gentle rain will come our way to keep hay pastures and rangeland  productive and enough sun-shiny days are mixed in to allow for a timely and unblemished harvest of the  wonderful crops growing across the region.