Released August 11, 2009
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Rain in the last couple of weeks has lessened the stress on some crops and allowed many agricultural producers to take a second or even third cutting of hay, according to reports from Texas AgriLife Extension Service personnel.
However, the drought isn't over yet. As of Aug. 11, burn bans remained in effect in 132 of the 254 Texas counties, according to the Texas Forest Service.
Unless they receive significant rain in the next week or two, dryland cotton in the Rolling Plains may not make a crop. But by far, conditions are most dire in counties south of U.S. Interstate Highway 10, AgriLife Extension agents said.
"Range and pastures remain in very poor condition with forage supply and livestock water from stock tanks at critically low levels," said Isaac J. Cavazos, AgriLife Extension agent for McMullen County. "Low forage supply conditions coupled with high feed prices and low stock tank water levels are forcing ranchers to further cull their herds and in some cases liquidate the entire herd."
Wildlife populations
It's not just cattle that are suffering. Wildlife populations are at risk in South Texas too, said Jim Gallagher, AgriLife Extension wildlife specialist based in Uvalde.
"It's gotten so dry that the (feral) hogs have moved out," he said.
Gallagher was not kidding. Areas such as Caldwell County that had high incidences of hog damage are now not seeing hogs.
Wildlife and hunting leases are big business in South Texas. Many landowners make from three to five times as much on their wildlife ventures as they do in conventional agriculture, according to Gallagher.
"It's getting tougher; there's no doubt about it," he said. "I was farther south on the Coastal Plains during July. Adult quail seem to be surviving all right, but out of the couple of dozen groups that I saw, about 20 were just a male and female pair. And that's some of the better results that I've seen."
Gallagher said he has seen some fawns but he wonders how many will live. Although there is cover for the mother deer to hide the fawn in some areas, he wonders if does will have enough food to produce sufficient milk to support their fawns into the fall.
More information on drought in Texas can be found at the Web site of the Drought Joint Information Center at http://agrilife.tamu.edu/drought/.
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http://agnews.tamu.edu/showstory.php?id=1354
Writer: Robert Burns, 903-834-6191
