Texas rain & drought causes $200 million farm losses
The record spring and summer rains resulted in about $200 million in agricultural losses in South Texas, Cooperative Extension and Texas Farm Service Agency officials say
The heavy rain and flooding swamped cotton, sorghum, vegetable and hay crops as last year's drought gave way to this year's deluge. "A bumper grain sorghum crop took the brunt of wet weather, mainly in May through July," said Dr. Carl Anderson, professor emeritus and Extension economist. "Timely harvest was delayed, causing not only yield losses, but also quality losses, which led to substantial discounts in price."
"Along with pollination problems and excess moisture making it difficult or impossible to harvest crops, especially with heavy machinery, the rains caused disease problems like downy mildew and powdery mildew on the plant foliage," said Larry Stein, Extension horticulturist at the Uvalde center. www.freshplaza.com
