By Tom Nicolette
Senior Network Producer

Farmers in the Texas Coastal Bend and Rio Grande Valley regions are beginning the harvest of their 2022 crops.

The last week of June is typically the beginning of grain sorghum harvest in the Coastal Bend. This year was no exception, and sorghum harvest is in full swing.

But dryland sorghum acreage is going to yield less than previous years due to drought.

“Many of the farmers in the Eastern portion of the Coastal Bend are bringing in some good yields of 3,000 to 4,500 pounds per acre. But no bin-busting yields have been reported in the 5,000 to 6,000 pound category this year,” reports Harvey Buehring for Texas Farm Bureau Roundup, the weekly radio program aired on the TFB Radio Network.

Buehring noted yields are expected to taper off as the harvest moves to the Western region of the Coastal Bend. Some of that area was planted late and didn’t receive enough rain.

“They are looking at a bit more disappointing yields than the producers on the East side of the region,” Buehring said.

Further south into the Rio Grande Valley, farmers are harvesting  grain sorghum, corn and sunflowers. The Valley sorghum yields are doing better than those in the Coastal Bend due to more rainfall.

“Early reports from sorghum fields show yields hitting 4,500 to 6,500 pounds per acre. Some of the late milo is still battling midges and armyworms,” said  Jim Hearn, who also reports for Texas Farm Bureau Roundup.

Meanwhile, early sunflower harvest numbers are looking good to this point. Sesame fields are drying now and should be ready for harvest in early July.

Hearn noted Valley soybeans have also begun to dry down to be ready for harvest along with the region’s cotton crop.

But in Northern Hidalgo County, many sunflowers and sorghum crops will not be harvested due to hail damage, resulting in multi-million-dollar losses for farmers, he said.

Continued drought conditions this year also had an impact on the state’s wheat harvest, which is wrapping up in the Texas Panhandle.