How Are Cattle Producers and Corn Growers Managing Another Year of Drought in Southern Texas?

For the third year in a row, southern Texas farmers are being challenged to grow crops and raise livestock in drought conditions. 

The latest drought monitor map for Texas shows just 23% of the state free from drought stress. Six percent of Texas is in D4 exceptional drought, 11% is in D3 extreme drought, 8% is in D2 severe drought, and 18% is in D1 moderate drought. The remaining 34% of the state is abnormally dry.

Sparse Rainfall

Sarah McKenzie, a fourth-generation seed stock and commercial cattle producer in Fort Stockton, said there hasn’t been much rain to talk about on her operation for the past three years. “It’s been really hard for us.”

Typically, McKenzie said her area receives about 10–12 inches of rain a year, but in the past year she said only 3 inches or less have fallen across her land. She said hurricanes used to be common, and fall rains also weren’t unheard of.

“The excessively low rainfall is pushing us to be really creative,” McKenzie said. 

Moving the Herd

“We’re doing something a little different this year,” McKenzie said. That something different was moving about a third of the McKenzie Land and Livestock herd up to the Texas panhandle, near Lubbock. 

While having the cattle so far from home makes McKenzie nervous, she said the farmer whose land they’re running on is someone they have “a lot of trust and confidence in.”

While it’s only a temporary solution to a long-term problem, McKenzie said it’s helping stretch their feed supplies to take care of the cattle that are being maintained and fed daily on their operation. 

In addition to keeping a third of the herd offsite to have enough feed for the remaining cattle, McKenzie said, “We’re fortunate that we have an alfalfa farm that’s 300 irrigated acres.”

Genetics are Important

Despite the drought conditions, McKenzie said they’re less inclined to cull more cattle than they need to because “We have more tied up into our genetics.”

McKenzie said there are 20 years of breeding built up into their herd’s genetic lines, so “We don’t feel like we should or can just sell cattle.” 

Additionally, McKenzie said, although the herd is made up of Black Angus cattle, their breeding has made it so their cattle are suited to the dry, arid climate of southwestern Texas. 

Bull Sale Outlook

Twice a year, McKenzie Land and Livestock holds a bull sale, with their 2025 spring sale coming up on March 11. 

McKenzie said the drought conditions over the last three years have changed the number of buyers their sale has attracted. “However,” she added, “we haven’t seen a decrease in the number of animals being sold or the demand.”

Overall, McKenzie said she’s “Pretty optimistic that we won’t have a decrease in our sale because the rain has been so spotty across west Texas.”

Corn Planting Has Started

Colin Chopelas, a corn, cotton, and grain sorghum farmer in Mathis, said recent 80°F–90℉ days allowed him to get started with planting his corn crop on time this year despite the dry start.

“This may be the driest I remember this time of year going into the planting season,” Chopelas said. 

Planting Paused

Although the temperatures were high recently, Chopelas said a recent cold spell has caused planting to “come to a halt right now.”

Chopelas said the freezing overnight temperatures had him concerned about the corn he’d planted that was able to begin emerging recently. “I’m sure the freeze burned it pretty bad,” he said.

Once temperatures warm up, Chopelas said the planters will be back to running. During the week of Feb. 24 he said he plans on getting some of his grain sorghum planted. Cotton is expected to get planted around the first and second week of March, Chopelas said.

More Crop Insurance Claims

When it comes to planting cotton, Chopelas said he’s concerned about dry weather continuing into March, resulting in him dry-planting his cotton crop. He said that scenario would likely cause there to be “more insurance claims than planted crops.”

A year of crop insurance claims for the cotton crop isn’t completely unheard of, Chopelas said. “On our operation, 4 out of 17 years we’ve had zero cotton emerging. I like to be optimistic, but, statistically speaking, it’s happened.”

Chopelas said it’s even looking “pretty marginal” for his corn crop to get up, and right now, low commodity prices have him concerned about breaking even. 

In spite of those concerns, Chopelas said, “We’re one good rain event away from everything working well.”