Story Created:
Mar 19, 2009 at 5:27 PM CST
Story Updated:
Mar 19, 2009 at 5:27 PM CST
(March 20, 2009)
VIOLET--In the Coastal Bend, it's a bleak outlook for farmers as the severe drought continues in the area. With the deadline for Milo and Cotton planting around the corner, they have to make a decision on what to do.
More than 100 area farmers attended a drought seminar in Nueces County. Many are worried the dry conditions will hurt one of the largest industries in the Coastal Bend.
Many farmers listened to the latest weather models for the next few months at the drought seminar. So far this year, the Coastal Bend has seen about three-quarters of an inch of rain, down nearly four inches for the year.
"This is worst than 2006 and we zeroed out 80 percent of our acres in 2006," said Wayne Miller with Douglass Farms Joint Venture.
Miller said farmers are preparing to plant, but it doesn't look good His wheat crop in Driscoll has failed for the most part, meanwhile they need to plant grain sorghum and cotton by April 15th.
"At that point, if we don't that amount of rain, we're suffering," Miller said. "It's really going to be a fruitless effort to try to plant something that you know is not going to come up."
Weather experts said the La Nina weather pattern is to blame for the severe drought.
"The La Nina is getting stronger which means conditions for the farmers is not good as La Nina gets stronger the weather gets warmer and the weather gets drier," said Bill Vessey, who is the Chief Meteorologist for KIIi-TV
Weather models show rain coming in May, but that may be too little too late.
"It's so dry we're going to need a substanial amount of rain to replenish our deep soil profile and none of that kind of rain is in the forecast in the near future," said Jeff Stapper, who is the Nueces County Extenstion Agent.
"This is severe and that's what everybody is telling us and that's what a lot of predictions are," said Miller. "It's real difficult to predict exactly what move we need to make."
Farmers aren't losing hope, but they see the writing on the wall.
--Manuel De La Rosa, Area 3 News, mdelarosa@kiiitv.com
