CORPUS CHRISTI, TEXAS — South Texas farmers are a few weeks away from getting back into the fields to start harvesting corn.
Early this year the U.S. Department of Agriculture suggested that farms would have an increase in corn acres and a record yield. For many South Texas farmers that is not going to happen.
“We are just kind of at a bad time right now, but I am optimistic that it will turn itself around. It nearly always does,” said South Texas Farmer Ray Patrick.
Across South Texas farmers are stuck with fields full of weather-damaged corn.
“Over here in this part of the county, we had marginal moisture when we planted. In the places where they planted that corn a little bit later, they got the rain quick enough that it helped it a lot. And in our case, ours was already damaged too much by the time we got rain on it because of the fact that we had planted it early, ” said Patrick.
Patrick says this year's corn harvest could cost him to lose more than $300,000.
“Well, I see a failure in that the insurance companies may make us go ahead and combine the corn, and there is not enough out there. It is really going to cost us; it is not going to be cost-effective for us to actually combine it,” said Patrick.
The good news for South Texas farmers is that the sorghum and cotton crops are looking really good. The bad news is that prices are down. Cotton alone is down 20-25 cents a pound from a year ago.
