Rain provides relief for North Texas farmers, but is too late for some crops
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - The hot, dry summer caused one of the worst droughts in North Texas history, but August came in with a gift of rain for a large portion of the area.
For farmers in North Texas it's been a rough summer fighting Mother Nature to grow and harvest their crops.
For some ag producers, the rain was too late.
"It's the worst cotton crop we've had in several years," said farmer Todd McGraw with Williams Gin and Grain Inc.
McGraw told CBS 11 News they planted 17,000 acres of cotton, however the bone-dry conditions killed off more than half of the crops.
"We would expect to get maybe about 30,000 bails to gin out of that, and because of the drought we're probably going to have about 12,000 bails to gin out of that," added McGraw.
While the rain helped dry conditions, it's too late for his cotton crop but other crops such as wheat and grazing cattle, came at the right time.
"It's really helped the pastures and the grass, caught a little bit in the ponds for drinking water," said McGraw.
On a much smaller operation, at Stone's Throw Farm Co. in rural Tarrant County, they have a 1-acre farm that sells and provides produce at farmers markets and inside a shop, the rain couldn't come soon enough.
"It's been wonderful," said Trish Stone, owner of Stone's Throw Farm Co., "The tomatoes have flowers again, the corn has shot up, the cantaloupes are putting on more blooms."
From severe drought to wet conditions, inflation to supply chain issues, this ultimately could impact your cost for produce and products.
"Something we're always looking at is trying to keep things to where the price makes sense because you don't want to be stuck with a store full of vegetables that no one can buy," added Stone.
"Long term it's going to make things more expensive," said McGraw.
The next U.S. drought map comes out on Thursday.