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Heat, drought stressing Texas farms
FOX 26 Business Reporter spoke with some farmers about how they're dealing with the extreme heat.
FORT BEND COUNTY, Texas - In the middle of our heatwave, it's harvest season for Texas farmers, and the hot, dry weather has taken a toll on crops. A year ago, farmers were worried about drought, when we went much of the spring and summer without much measurable rain. This year, only the last couple of months have been really dry, while scorching temperatures have made it difficult for some crops to grow.
Still, there's a lot of work involved in getting ready to work.
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On Paul Freund's farm, in Fort Bend County, the process of preparing his cotton picker could take a couple of hours before the massive machine can collect the acres of cotton that's ready to go in the fields.
In a state that grows more cotton than any other, the crop is a little better than last year's, but still about half the yield of a normal season.
"We haven't had measurable rainfall, beneficial rainfall, since the first of June," says Freund.
He planted the fields in late March, with some cautious optimism that weather patterns might be favorable. It was for grain crops, like corn, which have already been harvested. Early-season rain set them up for decent growth. Cotton, though, needed rain through late June, that never came, and less of the heat that has blanketed Texas.
"The heat rolled in, and cotton matures by 'heat-units'," says Freund. "We had a lot of heat-units, and it just sped it up, so here we are."
Conditions have been tough on cattle, too. As fields have dried up, there's less for them to eat. On the Freund farm, they've been turned to the recently harvested corn field to forage for food.
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It all sounds like a challenge and it is. But after 47 seasons growing crops on these fields, it's what Paul Freund has come to expect, "Usually every year, about this time, I start to question myself, but I'll have to keep going for a while."
Ideally, cotton gets harvested weeks, even a month later than now, if the growing season has been good. Still, it's not the worst that long-time farmers remember. Some will recall dry heat waves in 2011, even 1980, which were both significantly worse than what we're experiencing now.