By ROBERT BURNS
Texas AgriLife Extension
COLLEGE STATION -- Rain interrupted harvesting of row crops and hay in many parts of the state, but brought some relief from heat, and greened up pastures and rangeland, according to Texas AgriLife Extension Service personnel.
Aside from the rain, conditions varied widely from one end of the state to another.
For example, in the Panhandle more rains benefited many crops such as corn, which was pollinating, and farmers were kept busy irrigating and controlling pests.
"Deaf Smith County has had a productive week," said Rick Auckerman, AgriLife Extension agent. "Planes were flying and applying insecticides for corn borer and mites and fungicides on the area's corn crop. The cotton crop is in good shape but as usual it needs some heat units to speed up maturity."
"We got from 0.5 to 2 inches of rain this week, and the forecast is hot and dry," said Greg Gruben, AgriLife Extension agent in Scurry County, west of Abilene. "That is just what we needed for the cotton. Some has been laid down and rained on. The agricultural outlook is positive right now."
"Producers began harvesting corn, but early reports are not very good with yield reports far below average at 10 to 30 bushels per acre," said Rick Maxwell, AgriLife Extension agent in Collin County, north of Dallas.
"The very dry and hot June is believed to be the cause. Plus, in most all of our counties, corn was planted very late due to the wet winter and early spring," Maxwell said.
"Dry, hot weather continues," said Chad Gulley, AgriLife Extension agent for Nacogdoches County in East Texas. "Storms pushed through this week with some scattered parts of the county receiving 2-4 inches of rainfall. Other parts of the county remained dry and received little to no rainfall. Hay is being cut and baled. Some hay cuttings are yielding good but many cuttings are yielding small amounts of hay."
"River flooding continues," said Brad Cowan, AgriLife Extension agent for Hidalgo County, south of Corpus Christi. "Much of the county received significant rainfall this week, causing additional losses to grain sorghum. Now cotton is negatively impacted by recent rains as there was much open cotton is present in fields."
Russell Kott, AgriLife Extension agent for Kimble County, south of San Angelo, said. "There were some very localized showers at the beginning of last week. But temperatures quickly rebounded to the high 90s and then over 100. This has undone most of the effects of the earlier rains."