LUBBOCK - Kevin Crooks was one of many in Texas agriculture who couldn't resist.
A full-time rancher in recent years, the Tulia cattle producer eyed the high prices for wheat and corn and returned to farming both.
His winter wheat field harvests were "phenomenal."
"It was by far the best wheat crop that I've ever produced and I've farmed since 1984," Crooks said. "I think I could have skated through the rest of the year."
Across Texas, the nation's No. 2 agriculture state, this year's high grain prices and wet spring and early summer resulted in a record $100 billion in economic impact. In July, state officials declared a nearly decade-long drought ended.
The previous high, $85 billion in 2004, was followed by back-to-back drought years, with 2006 bringing a record $4.1 billion in livestock and crop losses.
Crop damage this year came from too much moisture - ironic in Texas - from the Rio Grande Valley to the Gulf Coast, hampering grain sorghum and cotton harvests.
Some of the largest increases came from a 440 percent increase from a year ago in production of grain sorghum, while corn production rose 91 percent. Both commodities are feeding the nation's new appetite for alternative fuels and have made Texas the leader in biodiesel production.
The state also leads the nation in production of cattle, cotton, sheep, wool, goats, mohair, horses, hay and deer. Industry-wide, nearly two million jobs and about 9 percent of the gross state product come from agriculture.
Other cotton growers followed Crooks' lead, planting 20 percent fewer acres of the fluffy fiber in Texas and growing corn or grain sorghum instead.
Even with fewer acres, Texas cotton growers are predicted to harvest 8.14 million bales, the second-largest crop. That's the result of improved genetics, which brought record yields to the South Plains, the world's largest continuous growing patch.
Timely and adequate rains also helped, said Steve Verett, executive vice president of Plains Cotton Growers, which serves a 41-county region on the South Plains.
"It would have been even bigger if the extreme rains in South Texas had not damaged the crop late in the season," he said.
Next year, demand for corn will lead some cotton producers in parts of the nation where there's higher than average rainfall to plant the biofuel crop. That has led to the prediction that Texas will plant half of the nation's cotton acreage next year, Verett said.
The cattle and dairy industry also will continue to feel the impact from higher grain prices, Travis Miller, a drought specialist with the Texas Cooperative Extension, said.
But it was the escape from drought that saved the year for ag producers.
"It's been a very good year," said David Baltensperger, head of the soil and crop sciences at Texas A&M University. "We can envision better but we're extremely pleased."
The first seven months were the wettest on record in Texas, nearly 11 inches above the norm of 16.21 inches. That gave cattle raisers a break from having to buy hay from out of state.
Just fewer than half - 45 of the 109 lakes monitored by the Texas Water Development Board - were at least 95 percent full, according to the agency's November report.
But the state has since seen far less rain, with the past four months below average, said Victor Murphy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Fort Worth. In November, only 30 of the state's 254 counties had burn bans. That number has nearly tripled to 115 counties, as of Dec. 14.
"The tap got shut off and it actually went very much on the dry side ... there was enough moisture for them to get their harvest out of the ground," he said.
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