Recent Rainfall in Parts of Texas Has Growers Feeling Optimistic As Row Crop Planting Continues

After a dry winter, with some parts of the state receiving just trace amounts of rain, some Texas growers are hopeful for an average crop year as corn and sorghum begins to emerge.

According to the Texas Crop Progress report for the week ending March 30, rainfall ranged from trace amounts up to 15 inches, with the Lower Valley and South Texas regions receiving the most rain. 

Along the Gulf Coast

Scott Frazier, a corn and grain sorghum grower in Nuecex County, Texas, said planting began in mid-February. The planting season didn’t start off too dry, “but every day it got worse and worse, just drier and drier,” Frazier said.

As the season began, Frazier wasn’t sure how his corn and grain sorghum were going to do with the dry conditions. Recent rains of about 3–4 inches over the last full week of March helped avert disaster for his crops, he said.

“This rain will carry us a long way,” Frazier said. “Of course, we’ll need more rain in a month or so, and commodity prices are so poor that, even if we had a record yield, we still wouldn’t be profitable.”

This comes after an average crop year in 2024 that still left Frazier with losses. He said input costs are “greatly exceeding the income potential” these days, and his “lenders are keeping a pretty close eye” on things this year.

For now, Frazier said his corn is knee high, and his sorghum crop is about 6–8 inches tall. The sorghum took a beating because of “tough winds” earlier than what’s typical on his operation, Frazier said, making the sorghum “pretty skippy looking.”

Crop Progress in South Texas

Russell Boening is a third generation irrigated corn and dryland grain sorghum farmer in Wilson County, Texas. He’s almost done planting corn and grain sorghum for the 2025 growing season. So far, the corn is about 8–10 inches tall. 

The rain that fell over the last week of March brought much-needed drought relief to his operation, Boening said. “We were extremely dry,” he said, “with only 5 inches total in eight months.”

When it came to planting, Boening said his dryland grain sorghum was planted into “very dry soil, and it wasn’t going to come up at all.” 

The recent 1.5 inches of rain that fell leaves his sorghum in much better shape, he said. “It’ll get a stand now, but we’re going to need another rain in the next few weeks.”

Overall, Boening said he’s just hoping for an average year. “I don’t think we’ll do any better than that,” he said.

Corn, Sorghum, and Winter Wheat Progress in Central Texas

In Hill County, Rodney Schronk, a corn, sorghum, cotton, and winter wheat grower, said his corn crop is all planted and starting to emerge. “The first half of it, aside from being beaten by some unusually high wind, is up,” Schronk said.

While planting corn, Schronk said the second half of the crop didn’t receive any moisture until after it was planted. “It’s not that perfect stand that you’d like to see.”

The same goes for the sorghum crop Schronk said he planted a week and a half prior. “It’s kind of a partial stand,” he said. “We need a shower to get it to a 100% stand like we want.”

When it came to planting conditions this year, Schronk said conditions were “about as perfect as we’ve had in a long time” in central Texas. As a result, Schronk said he expects to see fewer cotton acres in his area this year.

Schronk also said his winter wheat crop is looking “beautiful in our part of the state” as it begins to head. 

Although his wheat crop is looking “gorgeous” right now, Schronk said he’s hopeful for some timely rains to finish the crop’s growing season, especially since his 2024 crop was ruined by hail damage. 

“We gotta have a couple more timely rains without hail to really finish it out,” Schronk said. 

Statewide Crop Progress Planting & Conditions

For the week ending March 30, the Texas Crop Progress report showed that 55% of the state’s corn crop had been planted. This is similar to last year at this time, and 2% ahead of the five-year average. 

Just over one-third of the corn crop has emerged, at 35%. This is 1% ahead of last year, and 11% ahead of the five-year average. 

Forty-six percent of the sorghum crop has been planted statewide, as of March 30. This is 5% ahead of last year, and 3% ahead of the five-year average. 

Similar to corn, over a third of sorghum crop has emerged, at 34%. There is no emergence data for sorghum from the previous year or the five-year average.

The winter wheat crop reached 22% headed for the week ending March 30, according to the Texas Crop Progress report. This is 2% ahead of the previous year, and 2% behind the five-year average. 

Winter wheat conditions rated 12% very poor, 21% poor, 41% fair, 22% good, and 4% excellent.