By Shala Gean
Communications Specialist

More than a dozen farmers in the Panhandle lost cotton and received damage to other crops after a weekend hailstorm wiped out thousands of acres.

Billy Tiller lost 3,500 acres of his cotton acreage in Lamb and Bailey counties. He estimates 20,000 acres were damaged in the area from the storm, which sustained 60-70 mile-per-hour winds.

“Really, in 35 years, it’s one of the most devastating hail storms I’ve ever seen,” Tiller told the Texas Farm Bureau (TFB) Radio Network. “I’ve never seen a hail storm do this much damage.”

Tiller said farmers in the area were about 30 days from harvest when the storm hit. He said despite low prices, the waist-high cotton crop looked like “it was going to ring the bell.”

According to Tiller, the dryland cotton looked like it was going to be a two-bale crop and the irrigated cotton was looking really good.

“This was one of the best irrigated crops I had ever seen in this region,” Tiller said.

He lost 70 percent of his dryland cotton acreage. About 800 to 1,000 acres of his cotton crop was damaged, but not hailed out and will have significant yield loss.

The storm had hail from the size of a thumb to the size of a golf ball, according to Tiller. It left the crop battered.

The timing of the storm left little chance of salvaging the crop.

“When you get to this point in the season, all the alternatives are gone,” Tiller said. “There is no way to salvage a crop at the end. That’s why you have to have crop insurance, because you’re at a total loss at this point.”

Tiller said without crop insurance he wouldn’t be able to get through this.

“It’s an empty feeling when you lose a crop that’s had a lot of promise,” Tiller said. “It’s a tough pill to swallow, but you’ve got to be tough to do this business.”

The storm losses are also devastating for the local economy. Tiller spoke with the local gin manager at Texas Producers Cooperative. He estimated the gin lost around 15,000 bales that would have been ginned there.

“All we can do now is kind of regroup and prepare the land for another crop and try to go back at it,” Tiller said.

Hear more of Tiller’s comments on TFB Radio Network.