Friday, August 10, 2007


GANADO, Aug. 10, 2007 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) --
That old silver-lining rationalization that used to soothe children stuck indoors on a rainy summer day -- 'the water makes the plants grow' -- is of little consolation to Texas farmers watching their soaked crops spoil in the fields.

Staple products like grain sorghum, cotton and hay have suffered in the wetness of 2007 just as they suffered in the dryness of 2006.

'It doesn't really take a lot of rain (for crops to grow), it just has to be timely,' said David Bram of Bram Grain, who buys and stores corn and sorghum in Ganado, along U.S. 59 near swollen Lake Texana. 'Too much rain is as detrimental as a drought.'

At first blush, a drive along the back roads of the coastal plains between Houston and Refugio reveals teeming fields alternating between lush green rows of cotton specked by white bolls and tall stands of sorghum.

It takes a closer look to see the problems. Weeks of downpours in the region have caused many bolls to drop off or rot. And much of the sorghum, which doesn't have its normal reddish hue, should be harvested now except that much of it has been rendered worthless.

'It rained so much that the seeds (on the plants' heads) get so wet like they're germinating in the ground,' Bram said, explaining that tiny white sprouts emerge from the heads, which were tricked by the incessant moisture into sensing they were planted.

Though some studies have shown such crops are still viable for livestock feed -- the ultimate destination of most of Texas' sorghum and corn -- their value is degraded so much that many of those fields won't be harvested, Bram said.

'Some people have crop insurance that covers a portion of it, maybe 75 percent of the cost,' Bram said. Those fields are awaiting insurance adjusters to 'zero out' the crops before they're mowed down and growers can try again next year.

Cotton fields aren't as dire, but are still disappointing.

'Cotton needs a lot of heat and sunlight to produce high-quality fiber, and (the Gulf Coast) has not received either,' said agronomist Travis Miller, in a release from Texas Cooperative Extension in College Station.

Mike Hiller, the extension agent in Jackson County, added that overly leafy plants might need two applications of chemical defoliant before they're stripped, adding to growers' costs.

'It just turns into a big bush,' Hiller said of the sodden cotton.

Similarly cooler-than-normal conditions in the nation's largest cotton patch around Lubbock likely will lengthen crop maturation time unless it really heats up in August and September. The longer plants stay in the ground, the more growers risk an early frost damaging or destroying them.

'Statewide, I don't see this as being a favorable cotton year,' Miller said, although he added that sorghum is doing fine on the High Plains.

While cow pastures are green and healthy -- though some perennial grasses are struggling to return from the drought -- hay cuttings have been generally sparse because growers have been unable to get into muddy fields.

Too-mature hay becomes sour and nearly useless, meaning now that things are drying it could merely be mowed down. Parts of East Texas accustomed to three or four cuttings will be lucky to have two, meaning that hay stocks could be below normal for the second winter in a row, Miller said.

To be sure, the wettest January-through-July period in Texas history has created its share of positives.

Besides lush pastures and full lakes and stock tanks, the wheat crop yielded an above-average 144 million bushels. Farmers brought in 35 million last year, the worst wheat crop since 1971.

Corn, which has grown in popularity because of its demand by the biofuels industry, typically has thrived in the wet weather. As long as fields dry enough to allow farmers to get to it, Miller and Hiller agree it appears to be a good crop.

And there are still some parts of Texas that could use more heavy rainfall. The level of Lake Meredith, the Panhandle reservoir north of Amarillo that serves water needs from Pampa down to Lamesa south of Lubbock, sits barely above its record low depth set a year ago.

'Few ranchers will ever turn down a good rain,' Miller said.

 mark.babineck@chron.com

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