Texas

Details Unclear on Promised Water Deliveries From Mexico

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 20:52:32 GMT

Texas will supposedly get up to 202,000 acre-feet of water from Mexico in accordance with the 1944 Treaty beginning this week, the week of Dec. 15, according to the USDA.

However, it is unclear where this water will come from because Mexico doesn’t have that volume of water in its international holdings. Depending upon source, it is also unclear how useful this release will be to Texas agriculture.

“They don’t have a whole lot of the international storage and international reservoirs,” says Sonny Hinojosa, current water advocate and former general manager at the Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 2 in San Juan, Texas. He does note Mexico has some water in its internal reservoirs, however.

During her daily morning address on Dec. 15, Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, told the press “we are not giving away water that we don’t have or that would affect the Mexican people.”

Backstory to the 202,000-acre-feet announcement

USDA’s Dec. 12^th announcement was the main outcome of a series of meetings between the U.S. and Mexico that was kicked off on the afternoon of Dec. 8, when President Donald Trump demanded Mexico release 200,000 acre-feet of water by Dec. 31 on threat of an additional 5% tariff in a Truth Social post.

“Mexico continues to violate our comprehensive Water Treaty, and this violation is seriously hurting our beautiful Texas crops and livestock,” he wrote.

President Donald Trump’s Dec. 8 Truth Social post.

(Screen capture)

This is a reference to Mexico’s failure to deliver 1.75 million acre-feet of water to Texas via the Rio Grande by the end of the most recent five-year cycle, which ended on Oct. 24. According to the 1944 treaty, when Mexico fails to deliver the full amount within the five-year cycle, the remainder is carried over into the next cycle as debt. Water debt must be paid in addition to the current cycle’s volume.

USDA’s Dec. 12^th announcement included that there are ongoing negotiations between the countries to finalize a plan by the end of January 2026 for Mexico to repay its outstanding water debt of roughly 800,000 acre-feet.

Appreciation from Texas

The announcement was widely welcomed by Texas agricultural groups.

“I applaud President Trump for putting American farmers first and holding Mexico’s feet to the fire to get this treaty honored,” said Texas’ Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller in an announcement on Dec. 14.

“For years, producers in the Rio Grande Basin have been shorted the water they are legally owed, causing the loss of crops, jobs, industries, and livelihoods,” he added. “Let me be clear: Texas farmers expect Mexico to fully meet its obligations — not just today, but for years to come. Water is the lifeblood of agriculture.”

In a letter to the editor sent out midday Dec. 15, various Texas produce and row crop groups expressed gratitude to the Trump administration, including U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. But the co-signed groups and their leaders also urged quick implementation and consequences for inaction.

“While Mexico did deliver some water this year, thanks to pressure by the Trump administration, it was not enough to cover the debt,” wrote Dante Galeazzi, president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association.

“This new understanding must be quickly implemented. The U.S. must not allow Mexico to delay fulfilling its obligations, or it risks Mexico overusing water resources that should be shared. A tactic taken by Mexico for years without penalty or accountability,” Galeazzi continued.

Dale Murden, president of Texas Citrus Mutual, similarly applauded the move, but urged the administration to push Mexico to “honor this new agreement or face consequences.”

“The short- and long-term impacts on Texas farmers are beyond the data on paper,” Murden wrote. “Livelihoods have been uprooted, and the region’s agricultural landscape may never be the same again. Meanwhile, Mexico continues to expand its agricultural production that directly competes with U.S. producers … with water that should have been delivered to the U.S.”

Where will that water come from?

The co-signed groups and Hinojosa, who helped provide data for the meetings held between the U.S. and Mexico, all noted details from USDA on this new water transfer are currently unknown. What is known is that Mexico doesn’t have 202,000 acre-feet of water in the international dams.

According to public records (based on Nov. 29 conditions, most recent) from the International Boundary and Water Commission, the U.S. side of the group that adjudicates the water treaties between the U.S. and Mexico, Mexico’s water ownership at the Amistad and Falcon dams amounts to just under 166,000 acre-feet.

The Rio Grande reservoirs and tributaries in Mexico. From pg. 4 of Assistant Rio Grande Watermaster Jose A. Davila’s 2023 presentation for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

(Image and presentation from the U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission)

Sheinbaum told reporters Dec. 15 that Mexico “examined different river basins to determine how we could meet the United States’ request.”

Hinojosa reports hearing that the near-term repayment could include water from the Rio San Juan, which fits with Sheinbaum’s description. However, the Rio San Juan is not one of the original six Rio Grande tributaries covered by the 1944 treaty. It is also a problematic source, according to Hinojosa.

“We can’t capture or store that water,” he said. This means that such water would be of little use to farmers, but could be used for municipal purposes. “We’ve utilized it in the past, but [Mexico has] restrictions as far as what they can release.”

Those restrictions mean that the full 202,000 acre-feet could not come from that source alone, and certainly not by the end of December. Regardless, the agreement could be too little, too late for Texas growers who have already suffered tremendous losses, Hinojosa said.

“Once again, our spring crops are planted in late February, and I know our farmers; they’re not going to go on a limb and invest unless they know that we have the water,” he said. “So we might be looking at a fourth year of limited row crops. Now, if this continues and we get that 202,000 acre-feet, maybe it’ll help our vegetable farmers come next September or October, but we’ll be facing a fourth year of shortage.”

Mexico’s perspective

The U.S. and Mexico do not agree on the why behind the short water deliveries. While stakeholders on the U.S. side have pointed to growth of Mexico’s, especially Chihuahua’s, irrigated agriculture in recent years, Mexico has given a variety of reasons for not delivering sufficient water in a timely way.

During her Dec. 9 press meeting , Sheinbaum summarized the reasons why Mexico had not delivered more water in the past cycle as two-fold; Mexico’s own water needs and the limiting factor of the pipeline that carries water to the Rio Grande. However, she said the governors of the Mexican states, including Chihuahua, are united “to find the best agreement with the United States.”

On Dec. 15^th, she answered questions specifically about the details of the meetings, saying: “[the U.S.] requested that a certain amount of water be delivered by December, and we said that this was not possible, not only because it’s physically impossible, but also because it would have consequences if done in such a short time. So, an agreement was reached to deliver it over a longer period.”

She also cited drought and lack of rain in Mexico.

“So, an agreement was reached in this regard,” she said. “The agreement is typically for a five-year period, but now we will determine, based on the amount of rainfall during the rainy season, how to make up for the water that wasn’t delivered in the previous five years due to the drought.”

Sheinbaum also brought up the possibility that the 1944 Treaty, which she noted is very favorable to Mexico, might need to be renegotiated.

“Various experts say that Mexico may no longer be able to comply with this treaty, since the exceptional drought provision has been invoked in the last three cycles,” she said on Dec. 10. “It seems that the drought situation, or the lack of water to comply with the treaty, is no longer an exceptional one, but rather a reality.”

Mexico Probably Won’t Deliver All the Water it Owes

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 14:41:29 GMT

Mexico has two months left to deliver almost 1 million acre-feet of water to the U.S., but all that water probably won’t be coming, according to U.S. experts.

“Barring some kind of tropical system, that’s not going to happen,” says Sonny Hinojosa, current water advocate and former general manager at the Hidalgo County Irrigation District No. 2 in San Juan, Texas.

According to the 1944 treaty that governs water sharing between the U.S. and Mexico , Mexico must deliver 1.75 million acre-feet of water from the Rio Grande into Texas every five years. The current cycle ends October 25. As of Aug. 25, it only delivered 747,982 acre-feet , 43% of the total.

“The only thing that can bail Mexico out is a tropical system,” Hinojosa says. “Now, this is a monsoon season in northwest Mexico and west Texas, so we’re still hopeful to get some precipitation, but that still may or may not be enough to get us 100% of the water that we need.”

The deliveries of water from Mexico the the U.S. on the Rio Grande as of Aug. 25, 2025, from the International Boundary and Water Commission.

(Chart from International Boundary and Water Commission)

Hoping for a hurricane

Ideally, Mexico should deliver 350,000 acre-feet of water to the Rio Grande for Texas annually to reach the five-year total of 1.75 million acre-feet. But the 1944 treaty allows deliveries to run on the five-year cycle in the case of extraordinary drought. Mexico has been citing this provision and delivering water later and later in the cycle , often getting into “water debt” by not delivering enough on time.

In the past few cycles, late-cycle hurricanes bumped up deliveries. In the last cycle, which ended on Oct. 24, 2020, Mexico made the total 1.75 million acre-feet in the last days due to a heavy weather event.

The last time Mexico delivered roughly a million-acre feet of water in a couple months — what’s needed now — was at the end of 2010 as a result of Hurricane Alex that hit Mexico in late June.

“That’s the last time our reservoirs were full,” Hinojosa says.

The recent history of water delivery cycles from Mexico to the U.S. on the Rio Grande as recorded by the International Boundary and Water Commission. The mostly-vertical lime green line on the far left of the chart is shows the impact of Hurricane Alex in 2010.

(Chart from the International Boundary and Water Commission)

Alex was a just-in-time hurricane for Texas as well. Hinojosa explains those full reservoirs in late 2010 protected the state’s agriculture while it was deep in drought in 2011 and 2012. But by 2013, the water had again run out.

“It’s horrible to hope for a hurricane, but sometimes it seems to be what we need to get us caught up,” says Troy Allen, general manager of the Delta Lake Irrigation District in Edcouch, Texas.

“We don’t want the devastating ones that kill people,” he adds. “But if we do not get a hurricane this year in the watershed area, it’s going to be very rough come next year.”

Lucas Gregory, associate director and chief science officer of the Texas Water Resources Institute, says the best-case scenario “would be for a system to move pretty far inland and rain up in the mountains, in Chihuahua and the Rio Conchos watershed. That’s upstream of Amistad [International Reservoir], and that’s where the best storage capacity is.”

It’s not just a drought problem

However, there’s far more than drought going on in the situation between Mexico and Texas.

Gregory highlights issues such as growing metro populations on both sides of the Rio Grande and the impacts of climate change as contributing factors.

“But the ability of Mexico to store water in country is improved,” he adds. “They’ve built a lot more reservoirs in more recent history than the U.S. has, so now they can actually hold that water there and use it for themselves.”

Hinojosa says Mexico has built eight reservoirs since the 1944 treaty. Most were built along the Rio Conchos, a major tributary that delivers a lot of water to the Rio Grande — or used to, he says.

“Now they’re capturing it and using all the water for their expanded irrigation,” Gregory adds. “They’re basically irrigating desert with our water.”

Every source The Packer talked to pointed to the expansion of Mexico’s agriculture as a reason the U.S. is not getting the water it’s owed. This is particularly the case in the dry state of Chihuahua, and especially problematic with permanent, water-hungry crops like pecans.

Hinojosa points to the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement as when the problems started.

“It opened the doors for Mexico, mainly Chihuahua, to expand their irrigated agriculture into the desert using water that used to flow into the Rio Grande,” he explains.

“They’re using our water, and I say ‘our water’ because it’s rightfully ours,” he continues. “They’re capturing that water, storing it, using it to grow crops and then bringing them to the U.S. for us. And they’re killing our farmers. They’re killing our market.”

The impact on Texas growers

Since Mexico has only delivered roughly two years’ worth of water over the course of five years, Texas farmers and growers have been in a tough place for a while. Allen explains that his growers have been “on allocation” since April of 2023, while others in neighboring irrigation districts have enforced it since 2022.

“Meaning that they’ve told their farmers they are only going to get X number of irrigations,” he says. He calls the situation unprecedented in his 22 years at the district.

“It’s been very difficult for my farmers,” he adds, saying it is especially “looking pretty scary for the citrus farmers.”

Dante Galeazzi, president and CEO of the Texas International Produce Association, says Texas produce growers in particular are going to have to make some tough decisions.

“What it means this coming season is our growers are going to continue to veer away from water-intensive crops,” he says. “They’re not going to put in broccoli. They’re not going to put in celery. They’re probably not going to take a lot of chances on new commodities. They’re going to double down on what they know works.”

Those produce standbys will likely be crops like cabbage, onions, carrots and established citrus like oranges and grapefruit, he says. But the potential loss of produce diversity comes with its own problems.

“The diversity, the variety, the trying new things — that’s what has always helped South Texas be a region that provides commercial volumes of fresh fruits and vegetables,” Galeazzi stresses. But, without assurances about water availability, growers will likely stay in the safe lane, he adds.

“The safe lane is great, but the safe lane isn’t always profitable, and that’s challenging because now you’re coming off of two years where profits have been cut into if there’s even profits. And now, you’re about to go into year three of pretty similar conditions. It’s gut wrenching.”

What’s likely to happen in the next two months

Though Texas probably won’t get the full volume of water owed by Mexico, it will likely get some additional water this cycle. It might even amount to more than the usual annual delivery.

In an agreement signed between the U.S. State Department and Mexico in late April , Mexico pledged to deliver 324,000 to 420,000 acre-feet between the signing and October. That’s roughly a year’s worth of water delivered in five months. These deliveries are on top of the 110,000 acre-feet Mexico had delivered since the start of the current water year that started Oct. 25, 2024 and late April 2025.

If realized, the April agreement will bring the total deliveries for the current water year to 434,000 to 530,000 acre-feet, and the total five-year cycle deliveries between 854,000 and 950,000 acre-feet.

“Mexico has delivered 60.8% of the minimum that they said they would, so they’re on target to deliver this minimum of 324,000 acre feet,” Hinojosa says. “By the time this current cycle ends, it still leaves them with a deficit, but nonetheless, it has brought us some water in in recent history.”

Hinojosa praises the current administration for putting pressure on Mexico to achieve the April agreement that actually seems to be happening.

“I’ve been in this business for 38 years, and I’ve never known Mexico to do anything voluntarily before a cycle ends,” he says. “There’s a lot of pressure being put on Mexico, and that’s why they made these targets of delivering water to the U.S. before this current cycle ends.”

Needs for the future

More pressure is going to be needed to prevent this situation from repeating in the future, sources say.

“[Our administration is] going to have to implement something that puts pressure on Mexico that’s not tied to water,” Allen opines. That might mean tariffs or inclusion into the USMCA renegotiation, but whatever it is, it needs to spur Mexico to make good on their delivery requirements.

“Mexico could have fulfilled and caught up to what they owed us in 2022 because their reservoirs were full. They had a little over 3 million acre-feet in storage, and they still were over a year behind at that point in time,” Allen says. “But they didn’t deliver any of that water to the U.S.”

Hinojosa says a mindset change is needed in Mexico.

“We need Mexico to treat us, the United States, as we treat them on the Colorado River,” he says. The same 1944 treaty that dictate’s Mexico’s water deliveries to the U.S. on the Rio Grande also dictates the U.S.’s deliveries of water to Mexico on the Colorado River.

He says the U.S. takes Mexico’s allocation “off the top” of the available water in the Colorado River, then divides the rest among the seven U.S. states that rely on it. But Mexico does not return the favor, he adds.

“That has to change,” Hinojosa says. “Mexico needs to recognize that the treaty calls for a minimum delivery to United States of 350,000 acre-feet per year — that’s a minimum delivery — and they need to set that water aside and deliver that water to United States.”

Galeazzi also advocates for a mindset change here in the U.S. around not only Texas’ water issues with Mexico, but all of the country’s water issues. He describes the U.S. as having put water infrastructure on the back burner, adding that the country has “hamstrung ourselves” with excessive and burdensome regulations.

“We absolutely need to pressure Mexico,” he says. “But, if we want to prevent this from happening, the other thing we have to do is we — as a region, a state and a country — need to get serious and make some very big investments in the infrastructure of water.”

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Federal Court Rules on Fate of Prairie-Chicken

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 14:08:29 GMT

A U.S. District judge on Aug. 12 ruled in favor of Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas, finding that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service committed a “foundational error” when it declared the prairie-chicken endangered in 2022.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller in a press release praised the ruling from U.S. District Judge David Counts of the Western District of Texas, who issued the order reversing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) decision to list the lesser prairie-chicken as endangered and threatened.

“This is a big win for Texas, and one we fought hard to get,” Miller says. “From day one, I’ve pushed back against Biden’s federal overreach because it was wrong for our farmers, ranchers and rural communities. This court decision is more than just a legal victory. We stood our ground, and we won.”

PRESS RELEASE: Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller praised a decisive ruling from U.S. District Judge David Counts of the Western District of Texas, who issued an order reversing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS) decision to list the lesser prairie chicken as… pic.twitter.com/UzP2FlkFE6
— Texas Agriculture (@TexasDeptofAg) August 18, 2025

Under the Trump administration, FWS determined that it previously failed to provide “adequate justification and analysis” to support identifying two designated population segments of lesser prairie-chicken.

Judge Counts granted the motion for vacatur and remand, finding that remand alone would not correct the agency’s fundamental error in listing the species as endangered and threatened. The court denied all motions to intervene.

About the Prairie Chicken

The lesser prairie-chicken is a bird historically found in parts of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico. The bird has faced both habitat loss and population decline since the 1960s and has found itself the subject of proposed Endangered Species Act protections.

According to Tiffany Lashmet, Texas A&M agricultural law Extension specialist, in 2014 FWS listed the lesser prairie-chicken as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Numerous lawsuits were filed, and the listing was ultimately vacated by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in 2015.

The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas issued an order last week vacating the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) listing of the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act.https://t.co/BTobyZb9MF pic.twitter.com/CEV82UWJ8P
— TiffanyDowellLashmet (@TiffDowell) August 18, 2025

In 2016, another petition was filed with FWS to list the lesser prairie-chicken under the Endangered Species Act. In 2022, the FWS finalized a rule listing the Northern Distinct Population Segment as threatened and the Southern Distinct Population Segment as endangered. In March 2023, the State of Texas and the Permian Basin Petroleum Association filed suit challenging the listing. Specifically, they claimed the listing violated both the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedures Act.

Lashmet says following the administration change in January 2025, the FWS reevaluated the listing and found it erred in passing the final rule listing the lesser prairie-chicken.

“FWS now believes it erred by failing to provide sufficient justification to have two population segments of the lesser prairie-chicken, which then affected the assessment of extinction risk to the species,” she says. “This, FWS believes, was a significant error justifying immediate vacatur of the listing decision. FWS moved for a voluntary vacatur and remand of the listing rule. Several groups sought to intervene in the lawsuit to defend the listing rule.”

The Decision

Lashmet explains the court addressed two separate issues: the proper remedy and the motions to intervene.

“This case is extremely important for landowners, agricultural producers, oil and gas companies, and others across the portions of the United States where the lesser prairie-chickens are located, including Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas,” Lashmet says. “As of now, the lesser prairie-chicken is not listed under the Endangered Species Act, and there is no threat of liability under the Endangered Species Act for a ‘take’ of these animals.”

She says the story is not over.

“The FWS will now reconsider the 2016 application to have the lesser prairie-chicken listed,” she says. “It will determine how properly to view the distinction population segment, and then analyze the various factors required under the Endangered Species Act in making its listing decision. The FWS told the court it expected to have this completed by November 2026.”

Ag Commissioner Calls Deadly Flooding in Central Texas "Devastating"

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 17:58:06 GMT

Its being called one of the deadliest U.S. floods in decades.

Devastation in central Texas over the holiday weekend as heavy rain and flooding on the Guadalupe River created a 26 to 30 foot wall of water.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller says while the priority in Texas is on search and rescue for the over 40 people still missing, flash flooding hit 21 counties, accounting for about 10% of the state.

He says they won’t have an accurate damage total for at least a month, but the loss to agriculture will be significant.

“If you can picture this in your mind, in less than 24 hours there was the same amount of water that goes through Niagara Falls in a month and a half. Now that’s that’s a lot of water by anybody’s standard. It came early in the morning, 3 a .m. pretty much unannounced,” he describes.

Miller says they haven’t assessed the agricultural damage yet but this is a large production area for cattle, sheep, goats and hay, but also vineyards and wineries.

“But I can tell you firsthand that we have over hundreds and hundreds of miles of fencing destroyed, barns, structures wiped out, homes wiped out, farm equipment, tractors underwater, implements washed down the river, crops underwater, crops washed out. We’re finding dead livestock, cows, and top of trees in the river bottom. So it’s the impact on agriculture is going to be pretty large,” he says.

Miller says they’re helping farmers and ranchers with supplies and opening up the STAR or State of Texas Agriculture Relief fund, plus the agriculture mental health hotline to all Texans.

He says, “I have opened up our hay and feed hotline. If anybody needs feed or hay, call that. You can find it on our website TexasAgriculture .gov. Also, if you want to donate or even donate transportation, we could use that. Number two is our emergency response hotline or agri -stress helpline. That’s probably the most important one.”

Texas AgriLife Extension, including Disaster Assessment and Recovery agents and County Extension Agents, also mobilized over the weekend to support Kerr County.

The devastation comes as Texas farmers and ranchers are still recovering from one of the largest wildfires in U.S. history just a little more than a year ago.

Cotton Farmers Describe Somber Situation: 'We've Gone Beyond Losing Money to Now Losing the Farm'

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 17:49:05 GMT

In many areas of the South, cotton is king. It’s a dependable crop, and in turn, it’s made farmers loyal to what they grow. But with cotton prices falling below farmers’ breakeven, that crop is causing financial pain to even grow.

“I’ve been farming for 48 years, and I can’t remember anything in a year that’s been as challenging as the way it’s been the last couple of years,” says Franz Rowland, who grows cotton in Boston, Ga.

The south Georgia farmer says cheap cotton prices are one problem, and skyrocketing input costs are another.

“We’re going to plant cotton and don’t even have a clue if we’re going to get our money back,” he says. “There’s no farm bill to support us, and the reference price is so low that it’s not anything that we can depend on. So, we’re going to put several million dollars in the ground and don’t even know if we’re going to get it back.”

Cotton is a high input crop that requires a heavy dose of fertilizer and intensive pest and weed management. But in addition to that, today’s cotton farmers are dealing with the rising cost of equipment.

“It used to be a cost, but it wasn’t a terribly high cost. And today, one of the highest costs we have is machinery,” Rowland says. “Cotton pickers are over $1 million. And nobody makes a cotton picker but John Deere. So, we don’t have a choice.”

The Death of Agriculture in West Texas?
It’s a situation that’s not unique to just south Georgia, though. Cotton farmers across the entire U.S. are grappling with the same uneasiness of growing cotton in 2025. In West Texas, it’s especially hard.

The West Texas area is critical for cotton production. USDA shows Texas growers produce 42% of the country’s cotton . The area surrounding Lubbock, Texas, is known as the largest cotton patch in the U.S. And right now, nearly 68% of Texas is dealing with some level of drought.

The current U.S. Drought Monitor shows nearly 68% of Texas is experiencing drought. 29% of the state is in the “extreme drought” category.

(U.S. Drought Monitor )

“It feels like the death of agriculture somewhat in our area. Dryland farms really don’t pencil out on hardly anything,” says Heath Heinrich, a cotton and sorghum farmer located south of Lubbock in Slaton, Tex.

Heinrich grows cotton, sorghum and wheat just south of Lubbock, Texas, and he says it feels like a losing battle for farming in his area this year.

“We’re surrounded by political movements. We’re surrounded by tariffs, by markets, and then Mother Nature and business on top of it,” Heinrich says. “And it’s like we are trying to battle so many fronts right now that it’s hard to tell if we’re gaining any ground, you know, or if it’s leading to our demise.”

Drought has gripped Heinrich’s area for multiple years. It’s so dry they’ve struggled to even get the wheat that was planted in the fall to grow this past winter.

“We’re still waiting on the seed to sprout on two-thirds of our stuff,” Heinrich says.

Beyond Losing Money
As president and CEO of National Cotton Council (NCC), Gary Adams sees and hears the somber situation for U.S. cotton farmers from coast to coast. Adams says the outlook for 2025 is even worse than 2024.

“We’ve gone beyond just losing money now that we’re to the point of losing the farm. Unfortunately, where the industry is, that’s what it looks like as we’re going into 2025,” Adams says.

Adams says there’s a lot to unpack in explaining why cotton prices are so low, but the biggest reason is dwindling demand.

“If we look at world mill-use for cotton, it’s estimated right now around 117 to 118 million bales. Well, you don’t have to go too far back to see when we were consuming 123 million bales,” Adams says.

China Moves Away From U.S. Cotton
The biggest reason for the drop in world demand, according to National Cotton Council, is more competition from man-made fibers.

“You look at polyester production in China right now, they produce probably somewhere on the order of about 225 to 230 million bale equivalents. They’re almost twice the size of global cotton demand,” Adams says.

The dwindling picture of U.S cotton exports.

(National Cotton Council)

At the same time, big cotton producers, such as Brazil and Australia, are staring at big crops, which is helping global competition for the smaller market that’s left.

“We are an export-dependent industry,” Adams says. “About 85% of our cotton production is going to the export market. A strong dollar doesn’t help that competitiveness either.”

China is still a larger buyer of U.S. cotton, but there are two reasons they are buying less than they used to:

The switch to synthetic, man-made fibers
The last trade war

“If we go back to 2018, China was buying about 3 to 4 million bales. All of a sudden, we immediately saw the market share the U.S. had go from about 42% to 17%, and prices went from the mid-80s down into the mid-60s. We’re already starting in a depressed situation in terms of where market prices are compared to where they were.”

Cotton has lost market share relative to man-made fibers (MMF).

(National Cotton Council )

With so much focus on trade in Washington this week, NCC wants the Trump administration to enforce trade agreements already in place.

“A big concern we have is that you have non-qualifying product that comes in from third countries that should not be reaping the benefits of the trade agreement,” Adams says.

Some of the biggest offenders, according to NCC, are India, Pakistan and China.

“When you look at the trade date of the imported product coming in, there’s probably some Chinese, Indian and Pakistan yarn and fabric coming into those countries and then likely making its way into the U.S. in a finished good as a duty-free product,” Adams says. “That’s really where you’ve got to crack down because it ought to be either U.S. fiber or yarns produced in the region that allow you to gain the duty-free access into the U.S. market.”

Drumming Up New Domestic Demand
The cotton industry hopes to also capitalize on the momentum from the president’s America First Agenda , as one of the big domestic issues is not as much American-grown cotton is being milled here, either.

Textile/Apparel production has moved out of the U.S.

(National Cotton Council (NCC) )

In 2004, 6.7 million bales were used by U.S. cotton mills
In 2024, that dropped to 1.7 million
That equals a nearly 75% decline in the past 20 years.

One way NCC hopes to help revive the U.S. cotton industry longer term is by boosting domestic demand.

“As an industry, we are looking at some opportunities to perhaps use tax credits to reward the use of U.S. cotton in the supply chain by a brand and retailer. In other words, add some additional value to pull U.S. cotton through to the end product,” Adams says.

Farm Bill is No. 1 Priority
In the short-term, the NCC is pushing Congress to complete a new farm bill - one that applies to the 2025 crop.

“I just can’t state this strongly enough: We have to have a farm bill done by Congress this year that applies to the 2025 crop,” Adams says. “The economic assistance that was approved in the end-of-year package last year was a critical lifeline that’s allowing a number of producers to continue to get financing, but it was simply a short-term fix. It doesn’t address the 2025 crop. That’s why we’ve got to have something that helps meet some of the financial needs that producers are under right now.”

That dire plea for a farm bill is being echoed by cotton farmers, as well.

“We have to have a farm bill. Farmers can’t survive without a farm bill,” Rowland says. “The government came up with disaster and emergency relief programs, and that’s fine. But to hang your hat on something, so to speak, we’ve got to have a farm bill with reference prices that are current to the input costs.”

Rowland says the cotton industry is to a point that they are already seeing younger producers get forced out due to the lack of financing.

“What I hear from the younger guys is they’re having a really hard time getting financed. They can’t pay back the 2024 operating loan, so the banks are not wanting to go with them again in 2025,” Rowland says. “The money we got here lately from the government helped a lot, but it didn’t solve the problem.”

Rowland says the current farm bill is irrelevant, even calling it “worthless” for cotton.

“Without a farm bill, sooner or later, we’re going to be doomed,” he says.

Excitement for 2025 is Gone
Typically, planting season is one of the most exciting times of the year for Rowland, and one that signals hope and new beginnings. But this year, that excitement is gone.

“Typically my adrenaline starts going. I get all excited about making a crop and putting in a crop, and this year is completely different,” he says. “It’s just hard to get motivated to spend this money. I just spent $50,000 today on fertilizer and chemicals. Am I going to get that back? So, I’m not excited about it at all.”

Rowland says if prices don’t improve this year, it’s not just the fact he won’t be able to cover the high input costs he’s already paid, he says he could be staring at losses in the millions.

Your Next Read:

New Warning Signs Agriculture Is In A Recession
Will There Be A New Farm Bill This Year?

Industry News: AMVAC and DPH Bio Collab, Texas Joins FieldWatch

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 15:26:28 GMT

AMVAC and DPH Biologicals Sign Regional Distribution Agreement
AMVAC has entered into a regional distribution agreement with DPH Biologicals to significantly expand American Vanguard’s GreenSolutions portfolio and increase the availability of biological products throughout the U.S. This will also expand DPH Bio’s footprint into specialty crop markets.

Under the long-term agreement, AMVAC resells DPH Bio’s key products, which include TerraTrove SP-1 Classic, TerraTrove AmplAphex biofertilizers and BellaTrove Companion Maxx. In addition, AMVAC distributes future product offerings using DPH Bio’s TerraTrove technology platform for biofertilizers and the BellaTrove platform for biocontrol products.

With the agreement, AMVAC is servicing DPH Bio’s existing customers in the western and southern regions by providing enhanced commercial and technical support.

Douglas (Dak) A. Kaye III, chief executive officer of American Vanguard, said, “Along with our growing GreenSolutions portfolio, this collaboration has the potential to significantly increase the value, access, and use of biological products in western and southern U.S. crop markets for years to come.”

New State Joins FieldWatch
Texas joins FieldWatch, a non-profit company that promotes communication and stewardship among crop producers, beekeepers and pesticide applicators, along with 26 other states, one Canadian province and the District of Columbia.

The membership will enable Texas beekeepers (hobbyist and commercial) and crop producers (organic and conventional) to use FieldWatch’s online registry to identify and map the locations of apiaries and crop fields that pesticide applicators should avoid. The free and voluntary registries, DriftWatch and BeeCheck, will be available to all Texas beekeepers and crop producers.

FieldCheck is the online and mobile portal that pesticide applicators can use to improve decision-making and avoid damage from spray drift to crops and beehives.

Texas’ membership decision was especially driven by the needs of crop producers and beekeepers who wanted to register the locations of their apiaries and crops.

“The Texas Department of Agriculture and I are pleased to team up with FieldWatch to bring their innovative technology to Texas farmers and beekeepers,” said Texas agriculture commissioner Sid Miller. “This partnership gives our farmers another tool to protect their livelihoods, promote safe and effective pesticide use, and keep Texas agriculture strong.”

Brandt Adds Executive To Focus On Product Management Capabilities
Brandt has added a senior executive to launch a global product management function. Brian Deverman will join the Brandt marketing team as global senior product director to design, launch and build the new capability.

Deverman joins Brandt after a diverse career that includes three stints at Bayer/Monsanto spanning ten years. Most recently, he was vice president, global business development and licensing lead where he managed a large portfolio of initiatives and was responsible for leading account relationships in new and novel biofuel feedstocks for low carbon fuel alternatives.

“I grew up 15 miles from Brandt’s Illinois headquarters and our family worked with Brandt’s retail group for years,” said Deverman. “So when this opportunity came up, it was the perfect match: It aligned with my skill set and put me into an environment that I’ve known since I was literally old enough to drive a tractor.”

Also joining the product management team is Alex Lovdahl, Brandt marketing director, insights & analytics, who will leverage the suite of analytic tools he has built.

Corn Planting is Now Already Underway in 7 States

Tue, 09 Apr 2024 17:02:05 GMT

The second Crop Progress Report of the year from USDA shows farmers are already ahead in planting the 2024 crop. As of Sunday, USDA indicates planting the 2024 crop has started in seven states, and six of the seven states are already beating the five-year average.

Highlights of the weekly progress report include:

59% of Texas’ corn is in the ground, two percentage points ahead of the five-year average but one point behind a year ago.
7% of the corn crop in Tennessee is planted, two points above average and three points ahead of last year.
7 % of Missouri’s corn is planted, four points ahead of average and two points quicker than last year’s record pace.
5% is planted in Kentucky, two points ahead of the five-year average but one point behind last year.
4% of the corn in Kansas is planted, one point ahead of average and one point behind last year.
2% of Illinois’ corn crop is in the ground, one point quicker than average and last year.

Related News: Spring Planting Progress Off To A Good Start

The only state trailing the average pace is North Carolina where 8% of the crop is in the ground, one point behind average and last year.

A year ago, hints were starting to roll in about just how early the planting season could be for farmers in parts of the Corn Belt. After April and early March were dominated by cold temperatures, as well as rain and snow in 2023, drier conditions took hold, and forecasts for milder temperatures and dry weather opened a large window for planting.

As of April 9, 2023, USDA’s second planting progress report of the season showed 3% of the nation’s corn crop was planted, up one percentage point from the previous week, previous year and the five-year average.

Highlights of the state-by-state breakdown a year ago showed:

61% of Texas’ corn is in the ground, three percentage points ahead of the five-year average.
12% of North Carolina’s corn crop is planted, two points behind average.
7% of the corn crop is Missouri is planted, four points ahead of the five-year average.
6% of the crop in Kansas is in the ground, up two points from average.

Back to present day, and the weather looks prime for planting to continue this week. Growers across Illinois, Iowa and Missouri are talking about starting to plant this week if the forecast holds.

Photos of Planting Progress So Far

In Texas, farmers were planting under the solar eclipse. Ale Frick says they survived the eclipse, and soybean planting continues on their farm.

Well, we‘ve officially survived #eclipse24 #soybean #plant24 continues pic.twitter.com/cnn3BphUpC
— Ale Frick (@Engineer_Farmer) April 8, 2024

In northwest Iowa, at least one farmer took the opportunity to plant over the weekend.

Well, ok then. #plant24 #nwiowa pic.twitter.com/nVMWcaO9wH
— Punkin Lady 🎃🍿💥 (@AmySolsma) April 5, 2024

Also in Iowa, more reports of planters starting to roll this week, according to Dusty Rich.

Planters will roll this week in our area! Wishing everyone a safe and successful #plant24
— Dusty Rich 🇺🇸 (@drich82) April 8, 2024

We want to see how planting is progressing in your area. Make sure to keep AgWeb updated with Crop Comments throughout the season.

Rare Human Case of Bird Flu Confirmed. Officials Believe it Began on Texas Dairy

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 19:07:46 GMT

Just a week after discovering that Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, also known as bird flu, was the cause of illness for several dairy herds throughout the Texas Panhandle, New Mexico and Kansas , the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) is now reporting that a human case of avian influenza A(H5N1) virus has been confirmed in Texas. The case was identified in a person who had direct exposure to dairy cattle presumed to be infected with the disease.

The patient, who experienced eye inflammation as their only symptom, was tested for flu late last week with confirmatory testing performed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the weekend. Currently, the patient is being treated with the antiviral drug oseltamivir. The DSHS reports that the human case does not change the risk for the general public, which still remains low.

According to the CDC, this is the second human case of H5N1 flu in the U.S. and the first linked to an exposure to cattle. Symptoms can include a fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, headaches, fatigue, eye redness, shortness of breath, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, or seizures. The illness can range from mild to severe, and health care providers who come across someone who may have the virus should “immediately consult their local health department,” according to the alert.

“The risk to the general public is believed to be low; however, people with close contact with affected animals suspected of having avian influenza A(H5N1) have a higher risk of infection,” the alert said.

While the disease is new to the dairy industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says there is no safety concern to the commercial milk supply. Consumer health is also not at risk, the department said. The milk from impacted animals is being dumped or destroyed and will not enter the food supply.

“Milk from impacted animals is being diverted or destroyed so that it does not enter the human food supply,” agencies said. “In addition, pasteurization has continually proven to inactivate bacteria and viruses, like influenza, in milk. FDA’s longstanding position is that unpasteurized, raw milk can harbor dangerous microorganisms that can pose serious health risks to consumers, and FDA is reminding consumers of the risks associated with raw milk consumption in light of the HPAI detections.”

The virus was detected in dairy herds in Texas and Kansas last week and has since spread to additional herds in at least five states, all of which include:

Texas
Kansas
New Mexico
Idaho
Michigan

This leads some scientists to believe that the virus may be spreading cow-to-cow.

Texas officials are guiding affected dairies about how to minimize workers’ exposure and how people who work with affected cattle can monitor for flu-like symptoms and get tested.

In addition, officials are strongly advising dairy producers to use all standard biosecurity measures. They note it’s important for producers to clean and disinfect all livestock watering devices and isolate drinking water where it might be contaminated by waterfowl. Farmers are also being asked to notify their herd veterinarian if they suspect any cattle within their herd are displaying symptoms of this condition.

“Unlike affected poultry, I foresee there will be no need to depopulate dairy herds,” says Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. “Cattle are expected to fully recover. The Texas Department of Agriculture is committed to providing unwavering support to our dairy industry.”

For more n HPAI, read:

Spring Planting Progress Off To A Good Start

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 18:19:33 GMT

It’s officially spring and many growers are gearing up to begin planting. But as most of the U.S. isn’t quite ready to put seed in the ground, one state is already off to the races.

According to USDA’s first weekly crop progress report of the season, Texas has already completed planting on 57% of corn acres.

Some growers in the state even report having completed their farm’s corn planting for the year.

Central Texas corn planting is in the books! #plant24 #JohnDeere #Dekalb #Pioneer #stillworkin #Melde™️ pic.twitter.com/qfw39Ye2KJ
— Denim Dyl (@Yo_Melde) March 8, 2024

Other states sharing corn planting progress include Illinois (1%), Kansas (2%), Kentucky (2%), Missouri (2%) and Tennessee (2%). Overall, the U.S. is 2% done planting corn acres — slightly ahead of the five-year-average of 1%.

One of the Illinois farmers already making progress shares his views from the field.

It’s time 🌱🌽 #plant24 pic.twitter.com/pBj86qODSj
— Dana (@deholmes_16) March 29, 2024

At the same time, another grower in Illinois reports much of his region is doing tillage in preparation for the main event.

Lots of tillage in central IL prepping for #plant24 and a little purple cover crop termination #HappyEaster pic.twitter.com/LNwkmp6QBW
— Kent Klingbeil (@klingbeil_ISU) March 31, 2024

Though it would delay getting in the field, many states are in need of rain before making more progress.

60 day % of normal rainfall.

Depends on where you’re at Ofcourse but several corn belt counties could use rain. #AGwx #plant24 https://t.co/p4PKRYOqYf pic.twitter.com/PEYaM0TZPv
— BAM Weather (BAMWX) (@bamwxcom) March 28, 2024

This Kentucky farmer shares a look at some of those dry conditions.

It’s GO TIME! #plant24 #dusty #alreadyneedarain 🤦🏻‍♂️#kyag365 #johndeere #tillage #notillnoskill pic.twitter.com/epC0z2Zi5E
— Kyle Zarate (@KZarate1081) April 1, 2024

Luckily, there’s good news in the forecast with significant rain ahead for a large part of the Corn Belt.

You’re reading these totals correctly.

High likelihood of a deluge of 💦 Sun thru Wed this week, a result of a stalled out warm front for days.

Shouldn’t be any #drought / dry soil talk around these parts for some time going forward now.#ILwx #INwx #OHwx #AGwx #Plant24 #OATT pic.twitter.com/SPsdzKRn9b
— Kirk 🇺🇸 Hinz | BAM ⚡️Weather (@Met_khinz) March 30, 2024

Walmart Makes Plans to Build Third New Milk Processing Plant, This Time in Texas

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 19:38:05 GMT

Walmart, America’s largest retail store, has announced its plans to build its third milk processing plant – this time in Robinson, Texas, which is just south of Waco. The $350 million facility is slated to open in 2026, with Walmart saying the new facility will source its milk primarily from Texas dairy farmers.

This news comes off the heels of the company’s announcement in October last year to build a second processing plant in Valdosta, Ga. The Georgia facility is expected to open in 2025.

In the past, Walmart has purchased its great-value branded milk from other dairy cooperatives. However, over the last decade, the retail giant has built a series of milk processing plants to control the production of one of the most price-sensitive grocery commodities. Walmart opened its first fluid milk processing facility in 2018 in Fort Wayne, Ind.

Bruce Heckman, vice president of Manufacturing at Walmart, shared his thoughts.

“We’re excited to be able to provide Texas and its surrounding states with high-quality milk sourced primarily from Texas dairy farmers,” Heckman says. “This new facility continues our commitment to building a more resilient and transparent supply chain and ensuring our customers’ needs are met for this everyday staple.”

Leaders across Texas also voiced their opinions on the retailer’s announcement.

Greg Abbott – Texas Governor: “Walmart’s new processing facility in Robinson is exciting news for Texas, creating millions in investment for the local economy and hundreds of new, good-paying jobs for hardworking Texans in Central Texas. World-renowned companies like Walmart continue to choose Texas because of our unmatched business climate, lower business operating costs, and highly skilled, diverse and growing workforce. This major investment is a testament to the promise of economic success in Texas, and I thank Walmart for choosing McLennan County as the location for its important new facility.”

Bert Echterling – Mayor of Robinson: “As the proud mayor of Robinson, I am thrilled to announce a groundbreaking addition to our beloved city’s industrial sector. Today marks a momentous occasion as we welcome Walmart, a pioneering industry leader, to our community. This monumental investment is the first of its kind in both size and value, signaling a transformative era for Robinson. The decision of Walmart to establish its roots here is a testament to the strength of our local economy, the dedication of our workforce and the strategic advantages that our city offers. This landmark development not only promises job creation and economic growth but also underscores Robinson’s position as a hub for innovation and progress.”

Scott M. Felton – Judge of McLennan County: “We are proud to welcome a company, which tops the Fortune 500, to McLennan County.Great appreciation goes to the Robinson City Council, its city manager, Craig Lemin, and McLennan County Commissioner Jim Smith for working hand-in-hand with Walmart to ensure the necessary needs were met. This project is another example of how cities throughout McLennan County can participate in economic development. McLennan County is excited that our region has been named one of the top regions for food and beverage manufacturing businesses and this project reinforces our strength in this area.”

In a statement made by the retailer, the facility will process and bottle a variety of milk options, including Gallon, Half Gallon, Whole, 2%, 1%, Skim, and 1% Chocolate Milk for Walmart’s Great Value and Sam’s Club’s Member’s Mark brands. The products from the facility will serve more than 750 Walmart stores and Sam’s Clubs throughout the South including Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and parts of Arkansas and Mississippi.

For more industry news, read:

Images From the Smokehouse Creek Fire

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 20:12:21 GMT

Wildfires that ripped across the Texas Panhandle left in their wake destroyed homes, blackened earth, downed power lines and wandering livestock. But also, an outpouring of support that arrived by the truckloads in the form of hay, feed and fencing materials in addition to warehouses full of supplies for families who lost their homes. Personnel from the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and the Texas A&M Forest Service are on the front lines with volunteers to serve and support in the aftermath of the largest wildfire in Texas history.

The Smokehouse Creek Fire, which started in Hutchinson County, burned a total of 1,075,000 acres and has been declared as the largest in Texas history. And, it was only one of multiple fires that threatened homes and livelihoods in the past week.

Wildfire Battles Continue Over Weekend for Texas, Oklahoma

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 15:30:27 GMT

After burning for more than six days, the Smokehouse Creek Fire in the Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma was only 15% contained Sunday morning, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.

Now officially the largest wildfire in Texas history, the Smokehouse Creek Fire had burned 1.1 million acres. Texas Governor Greg Abbott said 400 to 500 structures had burned and livestock losses were in the thousands. He said he would be asking for federal assistance and he has declared 60 counties disaster areas.

Two people were confirmed dead as a result of the fire. An 83-year-old grandmother was discovered in the remains of her burned home, and an Amarillo woman in her 40s died when she exited her truck while driving in the city of Canadian.

The Windy Deuce Fire in Moore County, which covers more than 144,000 acres, was 55% contained on Sunday. The Grape Vine Creek fire, at 34,800 acres, was 60% contained. The Magenta Fire in Oldham County, spanning approximately 3,300 acres, was 85% contained. The 2,000-acre 687 Reamer Fire was 10% contained.

Much of the area burned in the Panhandle region is rolling sand hills and the Texas Department of Transporation is now preparing for blowing dust and that can drift onto roads forcing closure.

Oklahoma officials reported at least 14 fires were burning across more than 319,000 acres, much of that spillover from the Smokehouse Creek Fire. The National Weather Service issued a Flag warning—indicating dangerously dry and windy weather—until 9 p.m. Sunday for Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. A cold front was expected to move into the area on Monday and could bring some relief.

Additional information and resources are continually updated and available online at www.tscra.org/disaster-relief-fund .

The Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Foundation Disaster Relief Fund here.

Related stories:

Smokehouse Creek Fire is Officially the Largest in Texas History

Wildfires Raging in Texas, Oklahoma Panhandle Region Threaten Residents and Livestock

Smokehouse Creek Fire is Officially the Largest in Texas History

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 20:17:22 GMT

The devastating Smokehouse Creek Fire in Hutchinson County is officially the largest fire in Texas history, now covering an estimated 1,075,000 acres, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.

As of Thursday morning, the fire was only 3% contained. The Smokehouse Creek Fire eclipsed the East Amarillo Complex Fire in 2006, which was measured at 907,245 acres, and previously held the title of largest fire in Texas history.

Fire crews are working hard to combat the enormous wildfire at Smokehouse Creek, before heightened winds Friday and into the weekend threaten to make the job more difficult.

The fire has cause widespread destruction in northern Texas, where 83-year-old Joyce Blankenship was killed by the inferno in Hutchinson County, her family said.

• In addition to the mammoth Smokehouse Creek Fire, the Windy Deuce Fire in Texas has torched 142,000 acres and was 30% contained as of early Thursday morning.

• The Grape Vine Creek Fire has charred 30,000 acres and is 60% contained.

• The Magenta Fire has seared 2,500 acres and is 65% contained.

• The 687 Reamer Fire has burned more than 2,000 acres and is 10% contained.

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott authorized additional state resources to fight the blazes, including 94 firefighting personnel, 33 fire engines and six air tankers.

Additional information and resources are continually updated and available online at www.tscra.org/disaster-relief-fund .

The Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Foundation Disaster Relief Fund here.

Related stories:

Wildfires Raging in Texas, Oklahoma Panhandle Region Threaten Residents and Livestock

Hay, Feed, Fencing Supplies Needed to Support Panhandle Wildfire Victims

Wildfires Raging in Texas, Oklahoma Panhandle Region Threaten Residents and Livestock

Fri, 27 Sep 2024 16:11:22 GMT

Wildfires have burned almost totally out of control since Monday afternoon in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandle regions, threatening ranchers’ homes, livestock and equipment. The Smokehouse Creek Fire had traveled 45 miles and consumed 850,000 acres by mid-day on Wednesday, making it the second-largest fire in Texas state history. (The AP reported the fire had consumed 1,300 square miles.)

Additional information and resources are continually updated and available online at www.tscra.org/disaster-relief-fund .

The Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Foundation Disaster Relief Fund here.

Officials were still assessing the damage, but homes had burned in at least two Texas towns and one Hemphill County official said “homes have burned in almost every direction.”

The Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association is urging donors to give to the TSCRA Disaster Relief Fund to assist those affected by the fires.

“A fire is one of the most tragic events that can impact ranches, and a natural disaster such as the widespread wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma can result in financial hardships and deep impacts to our ranching communities,” said TSCRA President Arthur Uhl. “Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association is here to help through means of financial assistance and we’re encouraging those who can to donate to the TSCRA Disaster Relief Fund.”

The TSCRA Disaster Relief Fund is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides support for cattle raisers in Texas and Oklahoma who are victims of a natural disaster. All contributions to the TSCRA Disaster Relief Fund are tax deductible.

For more information, including how to donate and how to apply for funding visit tscra.org/disaster-relief-fund/ or contact TSCRA at 800-242-7820. Additional resources for victims impacted by these wildfires are also available tscra.org/disaster-relief-fund/ .

On Wednesday morning, officials said that fire behavior had moderated with decreased winds but that fires were still actively burning. While the Smokehouse Creek Fire was the largest, other active wildfires in the region include the Windy Deuce Fire, which has burned 40,000 acres and is 20% contained, and the Grape Vine Creek Fire, which has burned 30,000 acres and is now 60% contained.

In Oklahoma active wildfires include the Slapout Fire in Beaver County, 77,000 acres burned; the Catesby Fire in Ellis County, 30,000 acres burned; the E1980 Rd Fire in Choctaw County, 5,500 acres burned; and the Sand Creek Fire, 2,385 acres burned.

For those looking to donate hay, fencing and feed to cattle raisers impacted by wildfire, the below drop points have been identified in the Texas Panhandle:

Hemphill County Livestock Supply Point

100 Hackberry Street

Canadian, Texas 79014

(806) 323-9114

Pampa Bull Barn / Top O’ Texas Fairgrounds Livestock Supply Point

301 Bull Barn Drive

Pampa, Texas 79065

Curtis Preston: (806) 946-7467

Additional information and resources are continually updated and available online at www.tscra.org/disaster-relief-fund .

No Dryland Crop to Harvest: West Texas Cotton Farmers Open Up About the Harsh Realities of 2023

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 21:19:40 GMT

No matter where you travel in west Texas this year, the story is the same. Drought and heat created an endless battle for area cotton farmers.

“It was a devastating year,” says Casey Jones, a farmer in Lubbock, Texas.

“This is my 49th crop, and it’s been the toughest one to make,” says Bobby Rackler, a farmer in Hockley County, Texas.

Harsh Realities of 2023

The combination of heat and drought dried up hopes of growing a crop this year. Casey Jones’ farm ground is right on the edge of Lubbock, and he says if you ask any area farmer, they’ll tell you the 2023 cotton crop is one those farmers would like to forget.

“I’ve talked to a lot of my farmer friends about that, and it’s one of those years where you tell yourself, ‘Let’s get this one behind us, get it out of the books and let’s get on to a better one,’” says Jones.

Rackler says the challenges continued to mount for the West Texas cotton crop.

“Just everything went against it,” says Rackler. “We had 46 days of over 100 degrees and no humidity.”

Dryland Crop is Nonexistent

Farmers in West Texas didn’t have much of a crop to harvest this year. If a farmer only had dryland acres, they didn’t even have a crop to harvest this year.

“Everyone I’ve talked to is disappointed,” says Racker. “Their yields are way down, some of them lost all of their crop, and they’re not even harvesting.”

Fields that have no irrigation took the brunt of the heat and dryness, as those fields didn’t survive the harsh realities of 2023.

“The dryland is a total failure,” says Rackler. “The irrigated cotton is making a half of what it usually makes. A normal year, our cotton on drip irrigation, will make three bales, but this year it’s only making about a bale and a half.”

Cotton harvest can drag on some years, but not this year. Jones says harvest only lasted eight days. And it’s all because the dismal crop meant farmers had less to harvest.

“I’ve heard farmers across the board say the irrigated ground is about two bales to two and a quarter bales [per acre] on drip. I’ve got some pivots that’ll probably go anywhere between a bale and a half [per acre],” he adds.

Tough Start

The growing season started out extremely dry. When Farm Journal visited with farmers in March , they were still debating whether to plant. Consecutive years of little to no moisture meant subsoil moisture was nonexistent. Add to that severe winds in the late winter and early spring, and any winter cover crop and winter wheat didn’t survive the winter.

“We started off really dry and windy from all the way from February, March and April,” says Jones. “We had heavy sustaining winds of 82 mile-per-hour straight line winds.”

After winds and drought demolished cover crops and winter wheat area farmers planted late last year, they finally saw some rain that ended up delaying planting.

“We had 13 inches rain in May, and we really thought that was going to be it. The rain changed our outlook a little bit to go into a summer that was actually wet,” says Jones.

That relief, however, was extremely short-lived. The weather turned dry and hot, quickly zapping the moisture that came in May.

“We sustained 100-degrees-plus for 60-days-plus,” says Jones. “You have to understand that people don’t do good in 100 degrees, so you can imagine what plants do with limited water. It’s really tough.”

Largest Cotton Patch in the U.S.

The West Texas area is critical for cotton production. USDA shows Texas growers produce 42% of the country’s cotton . The area surrounding Lubbock, Texas, is known as the largest cotton patch in the U.S. And the majority of the cotton crop currently seeing extreme drought conditions is in that key cotton production area.

As cotton prices dropped this year, it’s been puzzling to farmers who are experiencing their worst production year on record. Farmers in West Texas know profits will be slim, but in this area of the country, they’ve learned they still have to protect one of the most precious resources they have.

“We started the first drip in 2008 here because it was a better usage of the water. It has no evaporation. I was skeptical at first, but I found out it does work. And it is stretched our water a lot more,” says Rackler.

Rackler adds that one of his farms had three pivots at one time, pumping 1,200 gallons a minute.

“Now I’m down to 500 gallons on the same well. And it’s just stretching your water further and utilizing it the best way you can,” he says.

The downfall is drip irrigation comes with a hefty cost. It’s double the cost of pivot irrigation systems, yet it’s those investments these farmers hope will pay off longer-term.

“It’s kind of the rule of 10,” says Jones. “You’re going to get several good years in there, you’re going to get a lot of bad years, and you’ve got to make sure to manage those bad years with the good years.”

As farmers reflect back on 2023, they’re surviving the harsh reality of such a trying year. Jones says there’s only one way to summarize the year West Texas farmers just endured.

“Let’s wait for next year,” says Jones with a smile on his face.

U.S. Farm Report and AgDay are hitting the fields to check on cotton harvest progress and yields with the 2023 Cotton Harvest Tour this year, which is sponsored by Deltapine® . The tour is visiting farmers in east-central Texas, Georgia, Tennessee and wrapped up in West Texas.

Texas Farmers Battle Wild Weather at Planting, Prompts USDA to Cut Cotton Acres in June Report

Mon, 03 Jul 2023 15:36:58 GMT

Last summer, sentiments across the Texas Panhandle were sinking. From gin operators to cotton farmers, the drought was drowning out any optimism area farmers had left. Nearly a year later, the story is dramatically different, with rains impacting the ability for farmers to plant all their intended cotton acres.

On Friday, USDA released its June Acreage report , estimating another cut to cotton acres. USDA says farmers planted 11.1 million acres of cotton, a reduction from the 11.3 million reported in USDA’s 2023 Prospective Plantings report . It’s also down a whopping 19% from last year’s final planted acreage estimate.

Texas is a major piece of the cotton production picture. It accounts for 42% of total U.S. cotton production, and the majority of that is grown around Lubbock, an area known as the largest cotton patch in the U.S. USDA estimates Texas farmers planted 6.1 million acres this year, which is nearly 1.7 million acres less than last year.

It wasn’t just lower cotton prices impacting growers decisions, but also the weather.

Kody Bessent is the CEO of Plains Cotton Growers (PCG) , representing cotton farmers across 42 counties in the Texas High Plains. He calls the weather changes pretty drastic and a change that happened pretty quick, too.

“We were still in a pretty severe drought situation, and certainly have not gotten out of that, but fortunately, as we’ve gotten into more of the aggressive planting time for our area, which is typically about the first part of May is when everybody really kind of starts getting going, we started to get rains,” Bessent says.

Bessent says farms across much of his area received a deluge of rainfall right at planting, and while the moisture was needed and welcomed, the sudden switch created new challenges for areas hit with the rush of rainfall. Farmers were unable to get the cotton crop planted this year.

“As you get through the Panhandle area, and all the way down through the western portion of the High Plains, their planting deadline is May 31, so we’ve obviously surpassed that.”

Crop-Killing Hail

Not only did the rainfall affect planting this year, it also affected what farmers have seen since.

“Lots of hail, there has been a lot with the storms that have come through,” says Todd Straley of Quarterway Cotton Growers in Plainview, Texas. “We had areas where 4" to 5" of rain fell over a couple of hours, and just completely flooded the fields.”

Storms this weekend were no joke. She gone pic.twitter.com/FiUdYySFLM
— Quentin Shieldknight (@QShieldknight) June 21, 2023

Last year when “U.S. Farm Report” talked to Straley, the drought was drowning out farmers’ hopes. Now, it’s the other extreme kicking in.

“When you get up north of Plainview where I am, up into the northern panhandle in Swisher County, and then even north of I-40, I think I had about 20% of my acres in that area that got planted,” Straley says. “And I don’t think I have an acre of that standing today.”

Bessent says fields in a fairly small area of the Panhandle took the brunt of the damage with field after field with bare stalks, stripped leaves and plants that looked burned.

“Several acres are being affected by that, but it’s really pocketed; it’s not a big splash like one would think that it is,” he says. “From a numbers standpoint, I’d say maybe a couple 100,000 total from our entire service area that’s been impacted by that.

Straley says Plainview and south, the planting and production picture is much better for cotton this year.

“We had roughly 60% of our intended acres, what actually got planted of that 60%, roughly 20% of that has been lost to hail,” Straley says. “So most is still standing underwater, even today, or the plants just got sick and died. So, that would take me to where roughly just a little under 50% of my intended acres are actually standing today.”

Mixed Outlook on Acres

Just launched this week, the Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor asked leading economists to give their projection on acreage. It’s a joint effort between the University of Missouri and Farm Journal.

The survey showed economists think with the weather challenges in areas such as Texas, cotton farmers actually planted 11.24 million acres, with the maximum response of 11.9 million and 10.95 million on the low end.

The responses about crop yields produced more variation. According to respondents in June, economists project cotton production across the U.S. to reach 855.18 lb. versus 841 lb. in the latest USDA report.

Other production estimates in the Monthly Monitor include:

Corn: 178.68 bu. per acre versus 181.5 bu. per acre (USDA’s current estimate)
Soybeans: 51.06 bu. per acre versus 52 bu. per acre
Wheat: 44.47 bu. per acre versus 44.9 bu. per acre
Sorghum: 68.17 bu. per acre versus 69.2 bu. per acre

“I think when you look at both corn and soybean acres, there wasn’t a lot of deviation from the Prospective Plantings report USDA came out with a few months ago, so we didn’t see a big change there,” says Scott Brown, a University of Missouri economist who helps author the survey. “On the yield side, there are certainly some differences. The average yield estimate, on the corn side from the survey was a little more than 178 bu. per acre, with a downside of 175 bu. Likewise on soybeans, that came in at about 51 bu. per acre. Both corn and soybeans are below where USDA currently sees yields. I will say those are going to change quickly as we look at weather and what’s occurred since the survey would have gone out roughly a week ago now.”

Crop Production Outlook for Texas Cotton

The crop might be half of what was expected in the southern panhandle and west Texas, according to Straley, but it is still better than last year’s nightmare for them.

“Honestly, the stuff that got planted and is still standing today looks awesome, and my personal crop looks really, really good,” Straley says. “A lot of my dry land has three and four foot profile underneath it with better moisture than we have seen in a long, long time.

Just look at USDA’s latest look sub soil moisture in this week’s crop progress report. Thirty percent of Texas’ subsoil moisture is considered short to very short. That compares to 72% on April 2, which was USDA’s first crop progress report of the year.

Currently, USDA says one-third of the cotton in Texas is rated good to excellent, but the next test for production is the extreme heat. The omega block is dominating the U.S. and bringing a heat wave in Texas.

“Our growing conditions seem to change day by day,” Peter Dotray, Texas Tech University Weed Scientist in Lubbock, told AgFax. “In early spring it was extremely dry. Then we entered a wet, cool pattern in May and early June. There was also wind and hail, and now we’re back in a dry pattern with temperatures in the high 90s and 100s.”

USDA Acreage and Quarterly Stocks Reports Usually Big Market Movers: Will They Be This Year?

Plagued By Drought and High Input Prices, Cotton Acres Could Crumble This Year

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 20:34:36 GMT

USDA is set to release its March Prospective Plantings report on Friday, which is the industry’s first official look at U.S. crop acres for the year. An area known as the largest cotton patch in the U.S. is seeing another year of relentless drought , and with fields resembling the Dust Bowl, prospects for this year’s crop are dwindling by the day, as is the outlook for this year’s cotton acres.

Brad Heffington farms in Littlefield, Texas, which is just northeast of Lubbock. He’s just five weeks away from what should be the start of planting season for cotton, but now farmers in this area aren’t sure if they’ll even be able to grow a crop on their parched dryland acres.

“I’ve got cottonseed booked, I’ve got corn seed booked and I’ve got grain sorghum seed booked, and I don’t know what we’re going to plant,” Heffington says.

Related Story: What to Know Ahead of USDA’s March 31 Prospective Plantings Report

Reuters’ pre-report trade estimate has U.S. cotton acres at 11.2 million acres. That’s a sharp drop from last year when farmers planted 13.7 million acres.

The National Cotton Council’s planting intensions survey, which is a grower survey done in February, also showed farmers planned to plant 11.4 million acres of cotton, which is 17% lower than last year’s number. Their survey showed the biggest hit to acreage would come from Texas, where growers surveyed showed a 21.2% drop in cotton acres this year.

“Most of the surveys that have come out so far, mainly the Cotton Council cotton grower, are above 11 million acres,” says Darren Hudson , Larry Combest Endowed Chair for Agricultural Competitiveness at Texas Tech University. “If you look at the corn:cotton ratio, which is sort of the historical benchmark that we use, it would predict more like 9.5 to 10 million acres.”

It’s no secret cotton acres could see a sharp drop, but as cotton prices drift lower, growers and economists question why simple fundamentals haven’t fueled the market this year.

“I’m a diehard cotton person, that’s made our country out here, but right now the market is telling you not to plant it,” Heffington says. “And it’s crazy. We don’t really understand a lot of the fundamentals of it right now.”

Related Story: ‘It Looks Like a War Zone': Texas Farmer Describes Wheat Crop Now Ravaged by Sunday’s Derecho and Dust Storm

This week, cotton prices shot higher, with even the October and December contracts above 83¢. The reversal comes after cotton prices plummeted lower in 2022.

“This planting intentions report might move the market a little bit, but we’ll see what happens, but I do think there’s a number of structural issues on the demand side that are probably weighing heavy on the future expectations,” Hudson says.

Deep-Fried Fantasies: 10 Big Tex Choice Award Finalists Announced for Texas State Fair

Fri, 12 Aug 2022 19:32:43 GMT

Everything’s bigger in Texas. And when it comes to the Texas State Fair, everything’s fried, too.

The State Fair of Texas 2022 has officially announced its 10 Big Tex Choice Awards finalists of 2022, and the list is nothing short of mouth-watering.

Along with the traditional fair food favorites we know and love, many Texas State Fair food vendors have gone above and beyond to create masterful dishes and treats for this year’s event.

Three winners will be announced in areas of the best-tasting sweet and savory dishes and the most creative concession item on Aug. 28, 2022, reports The Dallas Morning News.

Here’s a look at the Top 10 Big Tex Choice Award finalists :

2022 Savory Finalists

• Deep-fried BLT—It’s a traditional BLT made with a bacon and cheese quesadilla! Also, served with Garlic Parmesan chips for a side!

• Chicharron Explosion Nachos—Cajun seasoned pork rinds smothered in queso and chopped beef make for a great meal or a treat to share!

• Deep-fried Lasagna—Italy meets the fryer with this finalist, guaranteed to be a savory favorite!

• Fried charcuterie board—It’s all of the charcuterie board essentials wrapped in a wonton and fried with goat cheese and honey drizzled on top!

• Holy Biscuit—Smoked brisket, street-corn queso, bacon, Texas honey and fried pickles—what’s not to love?

2022 Sweet Finalists

• Cha-Cha Chata—Beat the heat with a milkshake, including cinnamon galletas de gragega, deep-fried bites of arroz con leche and a churro straw!

• Deep-Fried Rocky Road—Served with a scoop of ice cream, rocky road fudge is dipped in a sweet batter, fried and drizzled with chocolate syrup and sweetened condensed milk. Plus, some extra mini marshmallows and cinnamon-glazed nuts finish off the dish.

• La Bluebonnet—Named after the color of the Texas flower, this drink mix of citrus juice, blueberries and sugar are sure to be a hit!

• Peanut Butter Paradise—It’s a candy lover’s dream, including a deep-fried honey bun injected with caramel, topped with peanut butter, Reese’s Pieces, crushed Butterfinger, peanut butter cups, more caramel and powdered sugar.

• The Ultimate Brookie Monster—This takes the original “brookie” to the next level, combining brownies and cookies, along with Oreos, marshmallows and cheesecake—deep fried of course.

Which would you choose first?

Even Irrigated Cotton Acres in West Texas Now Struggle To Hang On As Scars Of 2022 Drought Could Last A Lifetime

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 20:40:08 GMT

An aerial snapshot of Hale County, Texas, tells the story best. A year of minimal rain and extreme heat has produced a scene that looks more like the dead of winter instead of peak summer. Shades of brown, along with the occasional pop of green, are vivid signs of just how devastating the drought of 2022 is for area farmers and the cotton crop.

“This is going to leave a scar that guys are going to remember forever,” says Todd Straley of Quarterway Cotton Growers in Plainview, Texas.

Quarterway Cotton Growers is one of several cotton gins in the area, and Straley manages it. The infrastructure is supported by an area known for growing cotton.

This year, the cotton crop is in jeopardy as the region is experiencing the highest level of drought measured by U.S. Drought Monitor. Without help from Mother Nature, much of the dryland crop is gone and even irrigated acres are fighting to hang on.

Related News: The Drought is Worse than 2011 for an Area Known as the Largest Cotton Patch in the U.S.

“We expected at the beginning of the season to be getting somewhere just slightly over 100,000 bales this year,” explains Straley. “Today it looks like we’re going to be somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000.”

Worse Than 2011

The outlook for 15% to 20% of the expected production could be the worst crop on record for this area of Texas. The last time the crop looked this poor was during the devastating drought of 2011.

“I can tell you in 2011 this particular area did 40,000 bales,” he says.

Steven Ebeling is a young farmer from Plainview, Texas, who farms near Quarterway Cotton Growers. He says 2011 still stings.

“I remember it very vividly,” Ebeling says. “I spent every day building fences and moving cows.”

His outlook is much like Straley’s; 2022 may be worse, largely because the aquifer is depleted, and he doesn’t have as much irrigation water available.

“In 2011, we had more water capacity than what we do now,” Ebeling says . “Whether it was smart or not, we were able to push a crop in 2011 and make that crop. This year, our aquifer is depleted to the point we’ve turned this into a salvage operation already.”

Ebeling admits farming in west Texas is never easy, but 2022 has been exceptionally tough and a brutal blow to farmers trying to make a crop. Ebeling’s first-hand account of the damage drought has already done is proof of that.

“We don’t have an acre of dryland left; it’s all been failed out. Most of it never even sprouted,” he says. “It’s pretty sad most of this crop is already starting to give it up. It never really even had a fighting chance, to be honest.”

High Heat Scorches Crop Prospects

It’s not just the drought that’s been unbearable for the crops. The heat is also slamming potential.

The National Weather Service (NWS) says so far this year, Lubbock, Texas, has seen 29 days with temperatures above 100 degrees. Sixteen of those came in July, and more are forecasted to hit in August.

“The only plants that are green or even alive are under a pivot,” says Ebeling.

Ebeling still hopes to salvage 80% of his irrigated crop, which is much better than other farmers in the area. But the recent triple-digit heat means the number of irrigated fields that fail this year will more than likely grow.

“I like to make a crop,” he adds. “That’s why I farm. I enjoy growing a crop. It makes me feel good. That’s what gets me up in the morning. It is an absolute last resort to have to turn off of a crop.”

Irrigated Acres Struggling to Survive

Darren Hudson is Larry Combest Endowed Chair and an agricultural economist at Texas Tech University. He says it’s stories like Ebeling’s play out out all across the High Plains this year.

“It’s horrible,” says Hudson. “I don’t know there’s any other way to describe it.”

Considering crop prospects dwindle by the day, and the dryland crop is already gone, Hudson says it’s a stark reminder of the crop in 2011.

“What we’re seeing now is there are a lot of irrigated acres that have been plowed up, that’s just not worth taking it to harvest,” says Hudson.

Hudson says USDA was aggressive in its July forecast, putting current U.S. cotton abandonment at 32%, which is the third highest on record. Much of that crop loss is due to the drought in Texas.

“I think the abandonment number that USDA is working with at this point is probably far too low for this region,” he says.

Hudson has talked to farmers across the region and he says most are making difficult decisions daily about fields that are too far gone to try to save.

“We had 2011, and then we’re following it up, 11 years later with another catastrophic failure,” says Hudson. “We’ve had a few droughts in between, we have gins that aren’t opening at all this year, we’ve got some ginners that are combining efforts.”

Economic Losses Could Be in the Billions

It’s the infrastructure piece of the puzzle that is troubling for economists and communities.

Texas accounts for 42% of total U.S. cotton production , and the majority of that is grown around Lubbock, which is known as the largest cotton patch in the U.S.

“We’re looking at figures possibly in the billions of dollars worth of lost economic activity for the region,” adds Hudson.

As a gin manager, Straley understands how vital cotton is to not just his gin, but the entire area.

“This drought is going to have a huge impact on West Texas, and Texas in general, for our entire lifetime,” says Straley.

His gin is in a strong enough financial shape to weather the storm this year, but he’s making changes because the crop just isn’t there.

“Instead of running for three and four months, 24 hours a day, we will more than likely run for one month and just run one 12-hour shift,” he says.

Straley points out the drought means fewer employees and a large reduction in the need to hire for other jobs. For example, he says the gin will do fewer repairs, which will mean less demand for those jobs that also support the cotton ginning industry. He says overall, the drought is doing major damage to the infrastructure in these small towns.

“These cotton gins, we don’t have insurance, we don’t have anything that that kind of keep our coffers full and keeps us keeps us going,” he adds.

As farmers weigh what to do with the crops barely hanging on, water remains a precious commodity.

“Our price per inch of water in this area has probably doubled in the last five years to the point that it becomes a question of if some of this is even economically valuable to water it or do you just shut it off,” he adds.

Rains fell across portions of the Texas Panhandle over the weekend, with as much as 7" falling in one location. The areas surrounding Lubbock were not so lucky. Where rain did fall, it only amounted to a trace. And if more rain doesn’t fall soon, there are more tough decisions many farmers here may be forced to make.

“If we don’t get a rain in the next 30 days, we’re going to have to go through that decision [to walk away from crops] again,” says Ebeling.

Dealing with the Depression of Drought

Battling the drought has forced to make this year are nothing short of depressing for farmers who do everything they can to grow yields.

“Maybe one of the largest challenges in agriculture, honestly, is the weather and the market impacts on our mental health,” says Ebeling.

Concerns about farmers’ mental health could be the biggest issue for Texas farmers this year.

“I try to call all of my farmers every couple of weeks and just have a mental health checkup,” says Straley.

A simple phone call is something he started doing as the reality of the drought set in.

“It really helps these guys to kind of get out of their head a little bit and remember that there is a world outside of the stress that they’re living in, in the moment,” he adds.

That short chat comes with a vital reminder in a time when many here feel helpless- and hopeless- staring at these brown and barren fields.

Self-eliminating Genes Tested on Mosquitoes

Tue, 03 May 2022 20:03:12 GMT

Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists have tested a technology to make temporary genetic modifications in mosquitoes. The modifications self-delete over time.

The mechanism to make temporary genetic changes could be important for scientists hoping to modify mosquitoes in ways that help manage populations and prevent vector-borne diseases like West Nile virus without permanently altering wild populations’ genetic makeup.

An article detailing their test results, “ Engineering a self-eliminating transgene in the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti ,” was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ PNAS Nexus. The authors, Zach Adelman , Ph.D., and Kevin Myles , Ph.D., both professors in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Entomology , describe a method for programming the removal of edited genes within populations of mosquitoes over multiple generations.

The method is a first step toward building safeguards for genetic modifications developed to control populations of mosquitoes and the vector-borne diseases they carry. The idea is to test proposed changes without making the changes permanent and without the risk of transmitting them to wild populations, Adelman said.

“There are lots of ecological questions we don’t know the answers to, and when you are testing technology, you don’t want to get into a situation where you have to tell a regulatory agency or the public that ‘if something bad happens, we’re just out of luck,’” Adelman said. “This mechanism is about how we get back to normal whether the experiment does or doesn’t come out the way we expect.”

Adelman and Myles are co-directing a team of scientists who received a five-year, $3.9 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to test and fine-tune the self-eliminating transgene technology.

Back to normal in a few generations

To prevent mosquito-transmitted diseases, approaches based on genetic control of insect populations are being developed, Adelman said. However, many of these strategies are based on highly invasive, self-propagating transgenes that can rapidly spread the trait into other populations of mosquitoes.

Keun Chae, Ph.D., a post-doctoral researcher in Adelman’s group, led the experiments in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, which are known vectors of diseases. Taking advantage of a form of DNA repair, Chae engineered a duplicated genetic code region along with two genes for fluorescent proteins into the middle of a gene important for eye pigment.

The result was a white-eyed mosquito, and also red and green fluorescence in the eyes and body. When combined with a site-specific nuclease, which is essential for many aspects of DNA repair, they acted as a precise set of molecular scissors that could cut the transgene sequences. Over several generations, mosquitoes regained their normal eye pigment and lost the modified genes.

Adelman said the work is proof of principle that scientists can do two important things – remove transgenes placed in mosquitoes and repair disrupted genes.

“Many groups are developing genetic methods for mosquito population control,” Adelman said. “Our method provides a braking system that can restore sequences in the wild.”

Self-editing transgenes could be leap for genetic research

Myles said creating this self-editing transgene is the first step in a longer process. The mosquito genome is not easy to manipulate, and the breakthrough is the culmination of around six years of experimental work.

But this first publication starts to address concerns about genetic modification in wild populations, he said. As genetic modification technology advances, Adelman and Myles believe this mechanism will allow researchers to evaluate the effects of changes more safely within the environment and on animals other than mosquitoes.

“These are highly conserved genetic pathways, and there is every reason to believe this method could be applied to a diverse range of organisms,” Myles said.

Both scientists are looking forward to expanding the application of their discovery in the context of highly active gene drive. They hope their method will be useful for geneticists and in pushing the boundaries of genetic research.

Devastating Drought: Texas Farmers Say 2021 Drought Already Rivals 2011

Fri, 16 Apr 2021 14:01:26 GMT

The latest U.S. Drought Monitor shows from North Dakota to Texas, all the way west to California, the most severe levels of drought didn’t ease across the U.S. this past week.

While 62% of the country is seeing some level of dryness, a 2-point improvement in a week, the most extreme level of drought grew, now covering more than 9% of the country.

Texas Extremes

All levels of drought are painted across the Texas U.S. Drought monitor. Only 8% of the state is drought-free, with 8.5% in the exceptional drought category. Around one-quarter of the state is seeing extreme drought conditions.

West Texas farmers are preparing themselves for a possible devastating impact to the 2021 crop.

“We’re extremely dry,” says Blake Fennell, a farmer in Earth, Texas. “I would say we’re giving 2011 a run for its money, but we’re probably drier than 2011 at this point.”

2011 is a year that sticks in many farmers minds in the West Texas and Texas Panhandle area. That’s when consecutive days of 100-degree temperatures, with no rainfall, meant pivots couldn’t even make it a full circle without crops shriveling up. And the dryland crop was nil.

Too Dry to Plant

The West Texas farmer says his area hasn’t’ seen significant rain fall in nearly two years.

“We’ve still got to give that crop every chance we think we can get, but at the same time, we also can’t waste a lot of money on a crop that we don’t think we’re going to have going into it,” he says.

Cotton Crop Worries

From monitoring inputs closely, to parked planters just waiting on Mother Nature to possibly produce moisture to even get the crop out of the ground, it’s a battle that farmers in the area say will be fought all year.

“If we don’t get any significant rainfall within the next two, three or four weeks, it’s going to have a very significant impact on the cotton crop in West Texas,” Fennell says . “A 1"or 1.5" rainfall event is not going to cure the problems we’re facing today.”

Fennell says the expectations for the West Texas cotton crop are also grim.

“Abandonment looks like it’s going to be pretty high this year, just for the simple fact that there is no ground moisture to get this crop emerged,” he says.

Heartbreak Amid Cancelled Farm Show: "This Is My Last Year to Show"

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 05:55:18 GMT

Fears of the coronavirus is causing event cancellations across the country. One of the most high-profile events in farm country affected right now is the Houston Livestock show and Rodeo. It was cancelled this week right in the middle of the show. Some producers had to pack up and leave for home while others didn’t even make the trip.

It’s been a long trip for some families on the road to the Houston Stock Show and Rodeo. It was a 10-hour trek for Jay Johnson of Happy, Texas. His kids, who also traveled with friends, were supposed to show heifers at the show. They unloaded for a couple of hours then had to get back on the road.

“We loaded and headed down to Houston,” says Johnson. “[We had] heifers on the trailer for about 12 hours. We weren’t on the grounds very long when we found out the show had been cancelled.”

Shelby Wachter is on the judging team at the University of Nebraka-Lincoln. Her judging team didn’t even get on the road before the show was cancelled. She says it would have been a good opportunity for the collegiate judgers to compete against other universities.

“While this isn’t my last judging contest in college, I’ll have another semester,” says Wachter. “This is [known to be the show that] ends off the semester before I go into the summer.”

Connor Crownover is a senior from Sunray, Texas. He has been showing pigs for over a decade and has attended all of the major livestock shows and competitions.

“You’re in there feeding them, brushing them and walking them,” says Crownover. “You’re in there [dedicating your time] an hour to two hours per day. This is my last year to show.”

Crownover says he had hopes to do well in Houston.

The show also usually offers financial incentives such as college scholarships to the winners. Some of those financials are awarded to inner-city kids in Texas too.

Picture courtesy: Stephanie Crownover

Former FSA Employee Serving 2 Years in Prison for $166,000 Loan Fraud

Fri, 20 Nov 2020 05:23:58 GMT

A former U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) employee in Texas has been sentenced to two years in federal prison after leading a farm loan scheme that defrauded the government of more than $166,000.

Barbara Serna Salinas, 43, a former FSA loan officer in Uvalde, Texas, was sentenced on April 8 to pay $166,744.20 in restitution to USDA. In addition to Serna’s two year jail sentence, she will also serve a supervised release for a period of five years following her discharge from prison. According to the Department of Justice , the sentencing was handed down by U.S. District Judge Alia Moses in Del Rio.

Serna had previously plead guilty to one count of making a false statement on a loan application on June, 28, 2018. In the guilty plea, Serna admitted to issuing multiple fraudulent loans through FSA during a period from May 2011 to June 2016.

Serna was approving loans in exchange for cash or other forms of payment that were made by co-defendants, Ruben James Valadez, 44, of Uvalde, and Eric Torres Neira, 44, of San Antonio. A review of USDA loans approved by Serna after 2011 revealed that several loans were approved to Neira and Valadez that totaled more than $150,000.

Both Neira and Valadez had previously pleaded guilty to the same false statement charge. Neira plead guilty on March 29, 2018, and was later sentenced by Judge Moses on Dec. 4, 2018, to serve five months in prison. Neira also must pay restitution with Serna to USDA totaling $142,961.94. Valadez plead guilty on April 26, 2018, and will appear in court for sentencing October 2, 2019.

Arrests of Serna and Valadez were made on Nov. 8, 2017 , while Neira was arrested the following morning. At the time of the arrest the three had also been charged with wire fraud, but those charges appear to have been dropped. The false statements on loan documents could have resulted in a penalty of up to 20 years in federal prison.

The investigation was led by USDA’s Office of Inspector General-Investigations, with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Todd Keagle is prosecuting this case on behalf of the Government.

Texas expands citrus greening quarantine area

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:17:54 GMT

The quarantined area for citrus greening disease in Texas has expanded to Brazoria and Galveston counties.

More than two dozen counties in Texas, mostly in South Texas and the Coastal Bend areas, are quarantined due to the disease, also known as huanglongbing. It is spread by the Asian citrus psyllid.

The quarantine restricts movement of plant material and all varieties that are affected by HLB, according to a Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service news release.

“I think the message we want to get out to the public is that everyone needs to take precautions to prevent the spread of this disease and to report the vector psyllids when found,” Stephen Breuggerhoff, AgLife Extension horticulture agent, said in the release. “We want people to be able to identify the disease symptoms and the psyllid. Announcing the quarantine is part of that effort.”

HLB has devastated citrus crops in Florida, and has been detected in Texas and California.

In Texas, it was confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Texas Department of Agriculture in a commercial citrus grove in Hidalgo County, in January 2012. Hidalgo and Cameron counties, the two largest citrus producing counties in Texas, were placed in quarantine for citrus in spring 2014, according to Agrilife Extension Service.
Texas A&M Agrilife Extension received more than $1.7 million from the USDA for two citrus greening projects, according to the release.

Related stories:

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USDA lifts Mexfly quarantines in Texas

USDA expands citrus disease quarantine areas in 3 states