Enough with the rain
CORPUS CHRISTI Enough with the rain, farmers say. But odds are against them.
Tropical rain is forecast for the Coastal Bend for the next 10 days. If it comes, area farmers may lose out on crops that looked promising just weeks ago.
Hurricane Alex last month made landfall south of the Coastal Bend, but it brought more than 6 inches of rain to the area. Crops appeared to be bumper crops before the rain.
The storm and others since have added too much moisture to the grain sorghum crops. It delayed the harvest of mature grain in Nueces County about two weeks.
Less than half of the county’s grain has been harvested, said Jeff Stapper, the county’s extension agent. About 40 to 50 percent of the grain planted received some damage, which decreases the crop’s value, he added.
Too much moisture can cause mature grain to sprout. The sprouting makes the seed fall to the ground or makes it moldy, said Duane Campion, San Patricio County’s extension agent.
San Patricio farmers have harvested about 40 percent of the grain. Those crops don’t need any more rain, he added.
Neither does the cotton.
Cotton harvesting could begin in as little as two weeks, if the rain is minimal and the fields dry, Campion said. Additional moisture also could cause damage to the cotton, he added.
“Damage could occur on fields in which bolls have begun to open, as wet lint will see a quality decline,” Campion said.
The National Weather Service forecasts a 60 percent chance of rain Wednesday. Tropical rains from the Gulf of Mexico could persist for the next 10 days, said Matt Grantham, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
So far, July has seen more than double typical rainfall, Grantham said. July normally has about 2 inches of rain. Through Tuesday, the area had received 5.66 inches.
“We’re in a pattern where we’re getting tropical waves,” Grantham said. “Unfortunately for farmers, August is typically wetter.”
The average in August is about 3.5 inches of rain, he said.
“I just don’t know what it’ll look like this year,” he said.
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