By Rod Santa Ana
With the rain faucet turned off and low market prices prevailing, Rio Grande Valley growers are off to a questionable 2016, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service expert.
Brad Cowan, an AgriLife Extension agent in Hidalgo County, said the bulk of the Valley’s summer row crops will be planted by mid-March, but growers are not optimistic and will have to watch every dollar spent and maximize yields to endure.
A newly planted corn field near Mercedes needs rain, as do most crops in the Rio Grande Valley
“Right now we need help from Mother Nature; we need rain,” Cowan said. “After record rains in October and more in early January, things have dried up, leaving growers with good deep-soil moisture but dry surface moisture. Unless they can irrigate, seeds won’t germinate in dry surface soil.”
And according to weather experts, the Valley may not see significant rains again until May. Barry Goldsmith, warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Brownsville, said the area has received less than 15 percent of its average rainfall so far this year and things may not improve until May.
“There are several indicators that the Rio Grande Valley could miss some of the better rainmakers in March that will affect central, north and east Texas,” he said. “April could see a continuation of the trend, but by May, when the jet stream lifts farther north, separate moisture that feeds high into the atmosphere from the eastern tropical Pacific and/or the Gulf and Caribbean could improve the chances for heavy rainfall. But it’s impossible to predict exactly if or when that might occur at the start of spring.”
The last substantial rainfall for the Rio Grande Valley was on Jan. 2, Goldsmith said. Since then, little more than sprinkles or light showers have fallen in most agricultural regions. From Jan. 3 to the end of January, the Brownsville, Harlingen and McAllen areas saw minimal rainfall and virtually none in February.
Blame the more northern location of the jet stream, which has allowed dry conditions to spread from southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and most of Texas, Goldsmith said.
Low commodity prices for all crops aren’t giving growers a clear picture of which crop would be more profitable to plant, Cowan said. But with dry weather prevailing, for those who plant grain sorghum the return of crop-damaging sugarcane aphids is an added threat.
“2014 was a dry year and our grain sorghum was just hammered with sugarcane aphids,” he said. “There was a lot of expensive insecticide spraying. Last year was a wet year so insect pressures were low. But if this year is dry again, growers will need to be on the lookout for sugarcane aphids.”
While some plants are up and out of the ground, most of the area’s cotton acreage has likely not yet been planted, Cowan said.
“Some growers are getting anxious to plant because with high winds and low humidity, they’re seeing surface soil moisture drying up,” he said. “They’d rather not irrigate yet, but if their soil is dry and there’s no rain, they’ll have to irrigate to get the seeds to sprout.”
Some growers have stopped planting in non-irrigated fields due to lack of moisture, Cowan said.
“Corn is usually the first row crop to be planted down here because corn can withstand cold temperatures and cold soils. What’s been planted so far in corn is up and looking very good, but they need rain now.”
The area’s sesame crop this year is expected to be only a fraction of last year’s 30,000 acres, mainly due to a lack of contracts from buyers.
“Sunflowers are in the same boat,” Cowan said. “Growers are not willing to plant without contracts with a profit potential, and we’re just not seeing that this year. And soybean prices are nothing to cheer about either.”
But farmers will farm, Cowan said.
“Planting will all be over in 30 days and we’ll start to see a clearer picture of what growers decided to plant,” he said. “But this year will be one of those survival years – finding a way to make it through another year as painlessly as possible.”
That means growers must minimize input costs while trying to maximize yields, something difficult to do because doing one adversely affects the other, Cowan said.
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