By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter
There may be snow on the ground in other parts of the nation, but planters are rolling this week across the Rio Grande Valley.
“Planters are coming out of the barn, and corn is going in the ground. Grain sorghum will be following that, and then cotton will follow that,” Brad Cowan, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agent for Hidalgo County, said. “Some guys have good planting moisture to plant to. Others wish they had a rain.”
Parts of the Valley received scattered showers in the past 30 days, but not everyone was as fortunate. As a result, some growers are opting to pre-water their fields.
“Down here, we use surface water from the Rio Grande delivered through irrigation districts. When they water before they plant, we call that a pre-watering. It will take them several days to irrigate the fields, and then it will take several more days for it to dry up enough to plant into. It’s an involved process, but if it’s dry, that’s an alternative some use,” Cowan, who is a member of the Hidalgo County Farm Bureau board of directors, said. “The other option that will happen sometimes is for an irrigated farmer to plant into a dry seedbed and then do what we call irrigate it up. They have that irrigation after the seed is in the ground. That works, too. Although, it works better on some soil types and crops than others.”
Although growers in some parts of the state are reportedly planning to plant more sorghum this year, Cowan said it appears the Valley may opt for another crop.
“We’re hearing talk of more cotton acres than we had last year in this part of the world,” Cowan said.
A few farmers are already planting grain sorghum, but Cowan says most farmers will put theirs in the ground in the coming days.
Despite the lack of rain for some and extending drought across much of Texas, farmers are optimistic going into the 2018 crop season.
“We had a pre-plant meeting a couple of weeks ago, and there was a lot of optimism in the room. I heard a lot of optimistic outlooks from the guys who attended the Beltwide Cotton Conference. It’s looking up,” Cowan said. “We could use some moisture. If Mother Nature would bless us with some moisture, that would sure go a long way.”
Hear more from the interview with Cowan on the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network.