By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Reporter
Despite Hurricane Harvey, drought, hail and everything else Mother Nature threw at Texas farmers in 2017, growers in the Lone Star State still managed to produce 17 percent more upland cotton than in 2016.
According to the 2017 Annual Crop Production Survey from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), 9.5 million bales of cotton were grown in Texas last year.
Yields were also higher at 793 pounds per acre, up from 748 pounds per acre the year before.
About 5.75 million acres of cotton were harvested in Texas in 2017. That’s up 11 percent over the year prior.
Soybean production in Texas was also up in 2017.
According to NASS, 6.84 million bushels were produced in Texas last year, up from 4.49 bushels in 2016.
Yields averaged 37 bushels to the acre, which is up from 31 bushels per acre in 2016.
Texans harvested about 185,000 acres of soybeans last year, up from 145,000 acres harvested in 2016.
Texas peanut production was up 5,000 acres in 2017 for a total of 210,000 acres.
Yields averaged 3,600 pounds per acre, up from 2,730 pounds per acre in 2016.
About 756 million pounds of peanuts were produced in Texas in 2017, up from 559 million pounds in 2016.
Corn production was down three percent in 2017 to about 314 million bushels.
Yields averaged 140 bushels per acre, which is up 13 bushels per acre from 2016.
About 2.24 million pounds of corn were harvested for grain last season, down 12 percent over 2016.
Grain sorghum production was down 18 percent last year to 94.5 million bushels grown in Texas.
Yields were down three bushels per acre to 63 bushels per acre in 2016.
A million-and-a-half acres of grain sorghum were harvested in Texas in 2017. That’s down 14 percent from 2016.
Texas rice farmers harvested about 11.5 million hundredweight (cwt) of rice in 2017. That’s down from 13.8 million cwt the year prior.
Yields averaged 7,260 pounds per acre. That’s down 7,360 pounds per acre from 2016.
About 158,000 acres of rice were harvested in 2017. That’s down from 187,000 acres in 2016.
The NASS Annual Crop Production report is created using results from the December 2017 agricultural survey.