SINTON, Tx — Farmers in San Patricio County are preparing for a harvesting season, but conditions at home and around the world have made the quality of that season uncertain.
"I think as farmers all we do is face challenges, you know, every day, whether it be weather issues, political events, so many things that are out of our control," Colin Chopelas, owner of Chopelas Farms, told KRIS 6 News. The multi-generational farm grows cotton, grain sorghum, and corn.
Much of the difficulty farmers in the county currently face stems from ongoing drought conditions.
"You know we can farm our way through a lot of problems, but we can't farm without rain," Chopleas said.
Similar sentiments were felt by Troy Nedbalek, owner of Nedbalek Farms, which grows similar crops. "There are some farmers who have had some moisture in certain parts of the county who have gotten some of their crop up, but long-range forecasts are not looking very promising for getting anything to sustain that crop."
Nedbalek continued, "I hope that it happens because we definitely would rather grow a crop than collect crop insurance. It's just like anybody driving a car, you'd rather keep driving your car than have to get an insurance claim to fix it because you were in a wreck."
"That's basically what our crop insurance is. It's there for us when we have a wreck on the farm, and it pays out so that we can continue to farm another year, and we definitely don't like that, but prices, potential for yield, everything is not looking real good right now."
Nedbalek explained that even amid dry conditions, farms are still required to plant in order to participate in federal programs designed to benefit agriculture.
Charles Ring, owner of Ring Brothers Farm and Seed, as well as president of San Patricio County's Groundwater Conservation District, said that even if weather conditions were ideal, rising costs are also impacting the industry.
"Even if we had normal weather, we're starting out with our input so high that we're starting out with negative position," Ring told KRIS 6 News. "Fertilizer went from $325 a ton to $380 a ton since last year."
Ring continued, "I mean that's the kind of inputs we have to put up with, and our corn and cotton have all gone down since last year in price."
According to The American Farm Bureau Federation, in 2025, forecasted total per-acre costs were $1,308 for rice, $1,166 for peanuts, $943 for cotton, $890 for corn, $658 for soybeans, $498 for oats, $491 for barley, $443 for sorghum, and $396 for wheat.
Projections expect an increase of 2.2% to 3.3% this year.
The farmers also explained that conflicts abroad have contributed to continued increases in costs.
"We're taking a hit, and I haven't seen the price of anything in the store go down, and it's everything in between us as farmers and the store that's created the issue," Ring explained. "Even the Mexican issues that are going on. We're having trouble getting trucks into Mexico with the cartels creating issues, of course."
In February, the Mexican army killed the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, “El Mencho," leading to increased violence in the region.
The current war in Iran has also exacerbated the costs of fuel.
"That affects the petroleum, fertilizer, some of the chemicals that we use all travel through that area, and as people have seen, the price of gasoline has gone up 20 to 40, 70 cents over the last week to 10 days since that's happened," Nedbalek told KRIS 6 News.
Since the conflict in the Middle East began, AAA reports that the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline has increased by nearly 27 cents since last week, with the average cost now standing at $3.25.
Reuters reports that prices for fertilizer jumped from $516 per metric ton on Friday to as high as $683 at the import hub of New Orleans on Thursday.
However, the farmers who spoke with KRIS 6 News did add that much of their fertilizer was secured before the war began.
The sentiment among the three is clear: Remain resilient, but keep the community in your prayers.
"Pray for rain and pray for the farmers because we have families to feed, just like everybody else," Nedbalek said. When we have a bad year on the farm that affects not only us personally but our family, all of our employees, all of the support industry, so it's a chain reaction whenever the top of the chain starts having problems that just trickles down."
"Farmers are very resilient, and we've been doing this for multiple generations," Chopleas added. "We just ask everybody to please pray for rain. Pray for the safety of those individuals who are involved in agriculture, and hopefully, we all get through this."
For the latest local news updates, click here, or download the KRIS 6 News App.
