Insurance deadline looms as wet fields plague farmers
By Elliott Blackburn / Lubbock Avalanche-Journal / May 30, 2007It's a miserable sound in a farmer's ears - that thudding racket of hail crashing into thousands of acres of fledgling green shoots. "Yesterday was not very nice to me at all," Stacy Smith said.
Hail damaged or destroyed roughly 3,600 acres of cotton on Smith's northern Lynn County farm during Memorial Day storms. Now Smith needs his fields to dry out so he can replant his cotton crop by a June 10 insurance deadline.
Drenched Region. Rains that abandoned High Plains crops last season have returned to drench the region in record-setting fashion. Farmers who need not irrigate for weeks are instead saddled with cool, sodden fields difficult to plant in and slow to sprout cotton.
Slow-growing seedlings are more susceptible to bugs and diseases, said Craig Bednarz, an associate professor in Texas Tech's plant and soil science department.
Dry Heat. Meteorologists expect the weather to dry out in West Texas over the next 90 days, with temperatures and rainfall returning to the typical dry heat.
But an at least 20 percent chance of rain clouds the forecast leading into the last possible dates for producers to plant and carry insurance on their crops. Continued delays could force growers into alternative crops like grain.
Deadline. "You're looking at significant drying time before you can get back in the field," Smith said. "If we have additional rain on top of this, that pushes us further toward that June 10 deadline, then planting intentions could change."
Cotton still leads the local multibillion-dollar agribusiness that pumps into the Lubbock economy. The region has for years been the largest contiguous cotton patch in the world.
55 Percent. Estimates released Tuesday by the National Agricultural Statistics Service showed only 55 percent of cotton had been planted in Texas so far this season, compared to 71 percent this time last year.
At the Acuff McClung Co-op Gin east of Lubbock, manager Rex Tomlinson said fields in the area were about 75 percent planted and expected most producers would be able to quickly finish the rest. Farmers had dodged the heaviest downpours.
Too Much. "We've had a little bit too much in spots, but it's really been pretty good to us," Tomlinson said.
Leighton Stovall, general manager of the Moore County Gin in the upper reaches of Texas cotton country, said acreage was about half of what was planted last year. But he said that was because of ideal conditions for crops like corn and wheat that are fetching better prices. Chris Breedlove, at the Olton Co-op Gin, was seeing the same and expecting to gin about a quarter of last year's tonnage.
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