Texas corn growers are experiencing a year like no other they’ve ever seen — about half a usual crop. Severe drought and intense heat have devastated much of the state’s corn crop, says David Gibson, Texas Corn Producer’s Board executive secretary.

This has been one of the toughest years corn growers have had to face, he said at the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation field day. Growers in South Texas made just enough to meet insurance demands, he says. “But other areas that missed early rainfall harvested little or nothing. In the panhandle, we’re seeing something most have never seen before — an entire year with no significant precipitation. We’ll make about half a normal crop in the High Plains.”

Gibson says corn farmers have been diverting irrigation from corn to another crop, from one pivot to another, or from part of one pivot to concentrate water on a smaller area to try to make at least some yield.

Farmers should work closely with insurance agents, provide adequate documentation and “cross all the T’s and dot all the I’s to get the protection they paid for,” Gibson says.