Hurricane Beryl damages promising crop for local farmers
HOUSTON - Local farmers are still calculating their losses from Hurricane Beryl, which hit more than a month ago.
The storm raked over thousands of acres of farm land, just a few dozen miles from downtown Houston, that had no protection from the wind and rain.
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A lot of crops were damaged or flattened, which is a painful punch for farmers who were hopeful for a strong harvest, this season.
"I don't know what we lost, yet. The corn is probably 20% gone, and the cotton, I'd say, is the same or more," says Needville farmer Paul Freund. "The quality of everything will go down, and we get deducted on the price (because of that.)" Farmers will know the full scope of their loss when they harvest what they can, and take those crops to market. Market prices for corn, cotton and sorghum are already low, so farmers needed a bumper crop to help pay the bills.
Damaged crops, and smaller yields, will make those economics difficult.