COLLEGE STATION A storm system that produced heavy rains in portions of Texas early Wednesday was welcomed relief for both farmers and ranchers, but officials with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service say the rains weren’t enough to break the current drought.
“We still need rain very badly,” said James Davis, Extension agent in Bell County where rainfall varied from a half-inch to an inch.
State climatology officials said the system moved in a southeasterly direction at about 33 mph and reached the Austin-San Antonio region just before midnight. Heavy rain and strong wind gusts accompanied the storm. San Antonio received about an inch of rainfall, while 0.63 inches of rain was recorded in College Station. Lufkin received 0.58 inches, while up to a half-inch was recorded in Mineral Wells.
Some parts of Texas weren’t as fortunate. Only 0.13 inches of rain was recorded in San Angelo, while Harrison County Extension officials reported 0.20 inches.
“We’re still on the dry side,” said Brian Hill, Extension agent for Harrison County. “Ranchers are still having to feed hay. It looked like there would be a surplus of hay, but it’s been so dry everybody has used it up. We’re hoping this next month we’ll get a little more rain so our summer pastures will be better. We’re just trying to be positive about it.”
Meanwhile, farmers are either preparing fields for the spring planting season or have already begun to plant crops.
“We’ve just started planting corn and some people have been planting for almost a week,” Davis said. “We think we have gotten enough rain in most places to take us through the rest of the week. We’ve got rain forecasted for Friday. The worse case scenario is that we go through a rainy spell and don’t get the crop planted.
“But the rain was very welcomed. Our optimum corn planting time is the first week of March. We’ll be back in the fields in a few days depending on what the weather does Friday. We’ve got to have the corn in the ground before March 15.”
While major losses have not occurred yet for crops, Texas ranchers have spent an additional $154 million in supplemental feeding and water hauling expenses since summer 1999 as a result of the ongoing drought that continues to plague the state.
Texas farmers and ranchers are enduring their third drought in four years, which is depleting stocks of hay that were thought to be adequate through the current winter feeding season. Beef cattle stocker operators and dryland wheat producers have lost income due to the drought affecting available forage from planned winter stocker operations. Extension economists estimated that $59 million could have been earned in the fall of 1999 had the drought not occurred.
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