A new study by Texas Tech University and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension found that crop production has a substantial overall impact on employment and the economy in the Texas High Plains region. The most recent data shows that crop production on the South Plains supported more than 103,000 jobs and generated more than $12.2 billion in economic activity in 2010.
Three years into a five-year project aimed at stemming a massive decline of quail in Texas, researchers with a conservation alliance based at Texas Tech University are finding that last year's blistering drought didn't help that rescue effort one bit.