By Jennifer Dorsett
Field Editor
Texas weather is often unpredictable, and an extreme cold snap this week expected to engulf the entire state is no exception.
The coming cold front has some Coastal Bend farmers who already started planting corn concerned, said Josh McGinty, a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agronomist based in Corpus Christi.
Farmers began planting based on extended warm weather, with daytime temperatures even reaching the high 80s last week.
“It’s a little bit early for planting, but this has been a pretty mild winter. We really haven’t had a hard freeze in Corpus Christi yet, and soil temps have been very warm,” McGinty said in an interview with the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network. “We’ve had a little bit of moisture, and the forecast has been pretty warm.”
Although the coldest air of the season and likely for all of winter in South Texas is expected to roll in soon, McGinty noted planted corn should be fine as it’s very early in the planting season.
“It’s really pretty safe. When corn emerges and through the early season, for several weeks, the growing point is below the soil surface. So, if we get a freeze, it can burn the leaves off the seedling, but it’s not going to kill the plant. And typically, you don’t see very severe injury that would result in a yield loss later on. Even if you burned the whole top of the plan off, you still have a growing point there that’ll come back,” he said. “The other thing is when it’s been this warm for this long on a clay soil like we have here, there’s a lot of insulation for that seed. It takes a lot of cold weather for many days to bring that soil temp down to the point that it could really be a problem. So I think we’re okay even on the corn that’s just starting to come up.”
Soil moisture has been an issue this winter, so some rain along with the cold front would be welcome, he added.
“Lately, it’s tended to get drier as you go further south. Up around Victoria and going north of there, they’ve had excessive moisture to where growers are just now being able to get into some of those fields to fertilize,” he said. “Here in Corpus Christi, we’re sufficient, but not quite where I’d love to be at this point in a year. I could use another rain or two before we really start planting.”
For now, Coastal Bend farmers are going to have to wait and see how the winter weather plays out.
“We’re just in a holding pattern ever since the forecast started turning cold for us. I would imagine corn and sorghum are really going to pick up after we warm up after that event,” McGinty said. “Hopefully, that’s the last Arctic blast for us this year, and we’ll be off to a good start. I just hope it keeps raining.”