Local cotton farmers should benefit from the recent rains, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Agent Greg Gruben said.
But first they may have some repair work to complete in the fields after the storms that brought more than four inches of rain to parts of Scurry County.
“In some places, it came pretty fast and broke some terraces,” Gruben said. “So there’s going to need to be some repair work before they can get started planting.”
Scurry County was taken out of a drought stage by the U.S. Drought Monitor last week after nearly four inches of rainfall this month. Gruben said he believes cotton farmers should be excited about the recent rains, especially because there was still underground moisture from last year’s rains.
Gruben said cotton farmers will need a wet summer to produce a good enough crop to offset recent low cotton prices.
“We need to have a big crop to try to help some of those guys out,” Gruben said. “The price is not good right now.”
Gruben said the early rains were nice, but not necessarily a sign of what’s to come.
“Last year, we were on pace to have a bumper crop,” Gruben said. “But after a while, it just dried up. As long as Mother Nature doesn’t turn off the faucet, we’ll be OK. Otherwise, we could be back in a wreck real quick.”
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