Because of the drought, there’s going to be no such thing as dryland crops in the Panhandle and South Plains this year, said Nicholas Kenny, Texas AgriLife Extension Service irrigation specialist based in Amarillo.

Despite some areas receiving rain recently, in most of the state record-breaking temperatures — above 110 degrees in some places — continued to hammer agricultural production, according to AgriLife Extension personnel.

The U.S. Drought Monitor said more than 70 percent of the state was experiencing exceptional drought as of June 21.

Panhandle and South Plains irrigators were pumping 24 hours a day just to keep up with crop water needs and water loss from the soil.
Kay Ledbetter / Texas AgriLife Research

About 91 percent was in one stage of drought or another.

Dryland crops failed weeks ago in most other areas, too, according to reports from county Extension agents.

Kenny’s responsibilities encompass all of the Texas Panhandle and portions of the South Plains region, where 100-plus degree temperatures, wind and low humidity have pushed evapotranspiration rates up as high or higher than they usually are in July or August.

“Certainly, there’s going to be no dryland corn, sorghum is going to be questionable, and if it continues like this, there will be no dryland cotton to speak of,” Kenny said. “We’ve had a lot of germination issues. A lot of people have planted and just been sandblasted and sun-blasted so badly that they’re running out of time to be successful at all.”

Irrigated crops were surviving, he said, but with as much as 0.6 inch of moisture being lost per day from evapotranspiration, irrigators were running center pivots around the clock just to keep up with water needs.

Though irrigators were stressing their resources, they were much better off than their dryland counterparts, Kenny said. Most irrigators were splitting water between corn and cotton.

“At this point, very few are able to keep up 100 percent with water demand, but if they practiced good soil storage strategies, where they’ve been able to bank some of the water during the year, then they been able to mitigate the ET (evapotranspiration) losses,” Kenny said.

On the other hand, irrigators have had the advantage of some very low natural gas prices, he said. Most irrigation pumps are powered with natural gas.

And because so many dryland fields have failed, high commodity prices should offset the increased costs of constant irrigation pumping, Kenny said.

In West Central Texas, meanwhile, extremely hot, dry, windy conditions continued. A few areas reported rain, but it did little to ease the drought.

Cotton planting was completed in most areas, but the crop will need rain to make a stand. Even irrigated cotton was suffering from the extreme heat.

Hay was not growing and producers were grazing hay fields to get what forage use they could. Stock-water tank levels dropped further and many were completely dry.

Ranches are out of grasses for grazing and water. Wildlife was also suffering.

Many animals were foraging for food and water in towns.