Published: November 25, 2008 09:49 am      

Drought conditions make life difficult for farmers

Lack of significant rainfall may not be as much an issue in north Texas as it is in parts of south central Texas, but many local agriculture producers say drought-like conditions could become a major problem if we don’t get some rain soon.

AgriLife Extension Agent Wayne Becker said not all of Cooke County is in bad shape. Yet.

“Yes, the drought is pretty bad, especially in western and northwestern parts of the country,” Becker said. “In many cases, the wheat crops are drying out. If we don’t get a rain pretty soon, (farmers) are going to lose their crops. It’s already impacted some producers. The southwestern corner of the county is doing pretty well, but we’ve all been short of moisture.”

According to the National Integrated Drought Information System, north Texas is not included in the national drought picture.

In drought-stricken regions such as the Austin and San Antonio areas, meteorologists estimate it would take approximately 9 to 12 inches to end the drought.

Parts of the Texas Panhandle and South Central Oklahoma, just north of the Red River are actually expected to receive more precipitation in the coming months.

But just south of the Red River, precipitation seems illusive, said Janice Snead, a Saint Jo cattle rancher.

She said dry weather is making her business a challenge.

She’s said she’s been running her mid-size ranch by herself since 1994, and she grows hay to feed her 100 or so mother cows and their calves.

She also has to buy hay.

“But I wouldn’t have to buy any if it would rain,” she said.

Snead said other factors make farming and ranching difficult lately.

“The thing is the farmer and the rancher are feeding this country, but it’s hard when prices are triple. Fertilizer is triple. Feed is triple. Farmers have to use diesel fuel to plow their fields and the price of that is way up. When you have a drought and a field dies, you have to replant it. I have a field I had to replant and it’s going to die again if we don’t get rain,” she said.

She said she also worries that low water levels in her stock tanks pose a danger to her animals.

“I have one pond that is just a mud hole. I’ve been trying to feed my cattle away from that pond, but you can’t keep them from going back to it. If a cow gets stuck in the mud you can pull them out, but a lot of times they still die,” she said.

Low livestock prices are another factor working against ranchers, she said.

“Cattle are going down in price, but the price of everything else is going up. It’s kind of a no-win situation,” she said.

Cooke County Emergency Management Coordinator, Ray Fletcher said conditions are extremely dry but he’s seen them worse.

“We’ve had a couple of good freezes. The fields are winter-cured and moisture is much less than it should be this time of year,” he noted.

High wind and low humidity also create high fire danger, he noted.

As a result, Cooke County Commissioners enacted a burn ban as of 11 a.m. Monday.

The burn ban means residents must follow precautions when engaging in certain outdoor activities such as welding.

Conditions are similar to the dry winter of 2005 that preceded the “catastrophic” ’06 fire season, Mark Stanford, fire operations chief for the Texas Forest Service, told the Associated Press.

In South Texas, officials are predicting a possible repeat of last season when 27 wildfires scorched at least 76,000 acres before Hurricane Dolly soaked the area and ended the drought, he added.

There are many things residents can do to prevent wildfires, but noone can influence the weather.

For that, Snead does have a suggestion.

“I live in God’s country, but I know the farmer is at the mercy of the weather,” she said. “All I can do is pray for rain.”