(emphasis mine) [my comment]

Beeville Journal
Texas Ranchers and Farmers Struggle in Drought
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
Published: February 11, 2009


Austin Brown II, 65, on his ranch in Beeville, Tex. Much of the state has not had a significant rainfall since August.

BEEVILLE, Tex. — Austin Brown II kicked the sandy dirt near a feedlot with his spurred boot and surveyed the land his family has ranched for three generations.

(See pictures of the Drought at the Brown Ranch)

Most years the first green shoots of spring and pink bursts of paintbrush flowers would be rising from the soil by now. Nothing meets his eye but brown grass, dried up oaks and dust billowing in the wind.

“You can see how the sand is just drifting,” said Mr. Brown, 65, digging his toe into the dust piled up at his feet. “This normally would be grass.”

The worst drought in nearly 100 years is racking three-quarters of Texas. Much of the state has not had a significant rainfall since August. Winter wheat crops have failed. Ponds have dried up. Ranchers are spending heavily on hay and feed pellets to get their cattle through the winter. Some wonder if they will have to slaughter their herds come summer. Farmers say the soil is too dry for seeds to germinate and are considering not planting.

"The last time we had a drought this bad was in January 1918," said John Nielsen-Gammon, the state climatologist. "The droughts in the 1950s in individual years were not as bad as this." Mr. Nielsen-Gammon, a professor at Texas A&M, said the weather had been unusually dry for the last year and a half, but since August, much of the central part of the state - a broad swath from just south of Dallas, through Austin and San Antonio and down to Corpus Christi - had gotten little or no rain. Even last year's hurricanes, Dolly and Ike, did not help, he said.

Though about a half-inch of rain fell in Austin and Dallas this week, it was not enough to offset the 20-inch deficit in rainfall over the last 18 months, he said.

A weather pattern over the Pacific known as La Niña has pushed the jet stream north, keeping the normal fall and winter rains away, meteorologists say. In the last three months, only about a quarter of the usual rain and snow has fallen across the state.

"We are dry from the Rio Grande Valley through the High Plains - there is no subsoil moisture," said Travis Miller, head of soil and crop sciences at the Texas AgriLife Extension Program. "I really don't think anybody's going to plant until we get significant moisture."

The time for planting corn and sorghum is passing fast. In central Texas, farmers plant corn from mid-February to late March, hoping to harvest it before the intense summer heat in August. Sorghum is planted a bit later, in late April. The last option is cotton, which can be planted as late as May.

Archie Abrameit, the manager of the Stiles Farm Foundation, a state-owned farm of 2,900 acres near Thrall, said the parched soil thwarted the winter wheat from coming up. Farmers have no hope that the spring crops will do better, since not even wild plants are sprouting.

"We make the joke we can't even grow weeds this winter," Mr. Abrameit said.

As a result, farmers have found themselves playing a guessing game. Does one plant corn now and hope for rain, or wait for rain, hoping it comes in time to plant sorghum? Or wait still later and plant cotton, which can be grown until later in the summer? Some admit privately that they will plant knowing the crop will fail in hopes of collecting insurance. Others say they may not plant at all.

"The clock is ticking as far as coming up to planting time," said Terrell Hamann, who farms 1,800 acres near Taylor, just northeast of Austin. "I change my mind about three times a day about what to do."

Complicating the calculus for farmers and ranchers, prices for grain and beef have dropped, as people across the country have cut their spending in the economic crisis.

At the Brown Ranch in Beeville, about 85 miles southeast of San Antonio, the family is bracing for what could be a terrible year. So far, Mr. Brown and his son, Austin Brown III, have kept their 2,000 head of Angus, Hereford and Akaushi cattle watered by pumping well water into troughs, at great cost in electric bills. They have also dipped into the ranch's savings to buy hundreds of bales of hay and hundreds of pounds cottonseed "cake," dense protein-rich pellets, to feed the animals.

As the younger Mr. Brown spread the cottonseed cake on the ground on a recent afternoon, a hungry mob of Hereford cows chased after his truck, jostling and bumping one another. The ground was devoid of green life as far as the eye could see. The cows and their calves had devoured a towering roll of hay left for them but could find nothing to forage.

"When the grass is real green and lush and they have a lot to eat, they won't hardly come to you," the younger Mr. Brown said.

A point comes when the cost of feeding the cattle in a drought becomes so high it makes no sense to continue, the elder Mr. Brown said. Then all or part of the main herd of reproductive cows and bulls must be slaughtered. It is a prospect every rancher fears, for that core herd is what produces a yearly bounty of calves to be raised and fattened for the market.

"We are going to try to keep these cattle going into June," the elder Mr. Brown said, “and if we don’t get any rain by June, then it’s all over and we will have to send them to market.”

The Herald-Banner reports that Storms fail to relieve drought in Texas.

Published: February 14, 2009 12:29 am
Storms fail to relieve drought
By BRAD KELLAR
Herald-Banner Staff

GREENVILLE — The severe weather which crossed North Texas Tuesday night brought damaging winds, occasional hail and a few tornadoes.

Many locations in Hunt County also received a brief drenching, but the precipitation was not even close to what was needed to relieve the current drought conditions.

In fact, only .13 of an inch of rain was officially recorded at Majors Field Municipal Airport in Greenville Tuesday, none of which was attributed to that night’s thunderstorms. City of Greenville officials also did not have a rainfall total to report, although Community Relations Manager Lori Philyaw said the city received less than one inch.

“We did not receive enough rain to lift the voluntary water restrictions,” Philyaw said.

Two of the five requirements necessary for putting the plan into place are still being met; namely the levels on Lake Tawakoni remain below 434 feet (432.44 feet as of Friday), and the Palmer Drought Severity Index continues to list Greenville under a moderate drought. Residents and businesses are being asked to voluntarily limit the irrigation of landscaped areas, to practice water conservation and to discontinue water use for non-essential purposes. Wholesale water customers of the City of Greenville are also being asked to abide by the restrictions. The cutbacks will be rescinded when two or more conditions listed as triggering the events have ceased in the event of substantial rainfall.

Hunt County also remains under a ban on outdoor burning, and the number of counties listed under burn bans had expanded by Friday to also include Delta, Fannin, Kaufman, Lamar, Rains and Rockwall counties.

KBMT12 News reports that Southeast Texans asked to reduce water use by 30%.

Southeast Texans Asked to Reduce Water Use By 30%
Meteorologist Bryan Rupp
Story Updated: Feb 13, 2009 at 11:24 AM CST

The Lower Neches Valley Authority has declared a "Stage II - Moderate Water Shortage Condition" for Southeast Texas. In this stage 2 declaration they are requesting all Southeast Texans reduce their water usage by at least 30 per cent immediately in a goal to conserve water.

LNVA hopes the conservation will lead to protection and greater availability of the water supply for domestic use, sanitation, fire protection and public health.

The stage two declaration has been issued due to the United States Corps of Engineers releasing the information that Sam Rayburn Reservoir has entered a zone three conservation pool on January 10, 2009.

According to the LNVA press release these are the steps that will be undertaken to ensure the conservation of Southeast Texas water:

1. LNVA will advise its customers by mail and/or by telephone.
2. LNVA will evaluate the need to curtail or discontinue the delivery of water for non-essential uses.
3. LNVA will request its municipal customers implement voluntary conservation measures, including restriction of lawn irrigation. Municipal customers may be requested to prohibit other non-essential outdoors uses, such as car washing, filling of swimming pools, etc. The LNVA will use the news media to inform the general public of the need to limit non-essential water use.
4. LNVA will request its industrial customers evaluate water conservation practices in order to minimize process water use to the extent feasible and to encourage basic water conservation practices among employees.
5. LNVA will request that irrigation customers monitor the condition of field levees, laterals, drains and other water delivery facilities to prevent wasting of water.

The LNVA will end this declaration once Sam Rayburn Reservoir has gone above the zone three level for 30 consecutive days. That statement will be dispersed via the media including KBMT 12 News ABC/NBC.

Drought conditions are rampant across the entire Lone Star state except for a small area near Texarkana.

Drought areas are rated on a six tier system from no drought to "exceptional" drought. The Lakes region is considered to be abnormally dry while the Golden Triangle is in a "moderate" drought.

However, the situation to our west is considerably worse as drought levels are "extreme" and "exceptional" in a large area including and surrounding San Antonio.

Winter is traditionally the wettest period in Southeast Texas. If the rain doesn't fall in the next 45 days, it could be until late Autumn until we see decent rainfall numbers.

For more information on the drought conditions across Texas presented by the United States Department of Agriculture in cooperation with the National Weather Service click HERE. And for more information on what you can do to preserve water in Southeast Texas presented by the Lower Neches Valley Authority click HERE.

My reaction: The Texas drought continues. This will be my last entry on Texas for a while, unless the situation improves.

1) The worst drought in nearly 100 years is racking three-quarters of Texas. Drought conditions are rampant across the entire state except for a small area near Texarkana.

2) Much of the state has not had a significant rainfall since August.

3) Winter wheat crops have failed.

4) Ponds have dried up.

5) A weather pattern over the Pacific known as La Niña has pushed the jet stream north, keeping the normal fall and winter rains away

6) From the Rio Grande Valley through the High Plains, there is no subsoil moisture. Not even wild plants are sprouting.

7) Some farmers admit privately that they will plant knowing the crop will fail in hopes of collecting insurance, and others say they may not plant at all.

8) Low prices for grain and beef are further discouraging farmers from taking the risk of planting new crops.

9) Ranchers are spending heavily on hay and feed pellets to get their cattle through the winter.

10) Texas is close to the point when the cost of feeding the cattle in a drought becomes so high it makes no sense to continue. When this occurs, all or part of the main herd of reproductive cows and bulls must be slaughtered.

11) All Southeast Texans reduce their water usage by at least 30 per cent immediately

12) Recent precipitation in Texas was not even close to what was needed to relieve the current drought conditions.

13) Winter is traditionally the wettest period in Southeast Texas. If the rain doesn't fall in the next 45 days, Texas is unlikely to see decent rainfall before next fall.