Murphy’s Law dominated 2024 South Texas cotton and grain production.

Jon Whatley, Odem, Texas, says if he had a checklist of five things that could go wrong with a crop at the beginning of a season—drought, storms, high production costs, low yields, and high interest rates—he could check them all off as he finishes harvest.

Michael Popp, El Campo, agrees. “We were fortunate to finish harvesting milo one hour before the first rains from Hurricane Beryl started,” Popp says. “Many were not that fortunate. Probably around 40% of the milo crop remained in the field when the storm hit.”

He says damage from Beryl included flattened milo, corn, and rice, and cotton stripped of leaves, lint, and fruit. “Structures were damaged, including major damage to The United Ag Co-op grain facility, as well as several farmer’s barns and sheds.”

He said the hurricane provided some much-needed moisture to most of the region’s cotton, which “looked to be one of the most promising since our record crop of 2012.”

Whatley has farmed on his own since 1994 and fears that this season could  “leave the biggest mark ever. Nothing like rising costs, lower yield, and lower prices to create hardships,” he says.

Popp says Wharton County and the farmers there “are facing one of the bleakest outlooks I have experienced in my farming career.”

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Whatley expected to finish cotton harvest by mid-August. “We’re not picking as much cotton as we hoped,” he says. “Quality is not great, just okay. With lower yield and inflation on every end, an average or a bit better than average yield is not enough.”

Hurricane damage

Popp, who farms with his father, Cedric, says some crops withstood the hurricane fairly well. “Several areas were hit harder than others, depending on proximity to the hurricane eye wall.”

He says the two to three weeks of rainfall following the hurricane caused additional damage. “Any grain sorghum remaining in the field was ruined (probably 1/3 of the crop because some was harvested in the mud immediately following the hurricane). Corn weathered things the best but also suffered sprout damage and mold with some corn sprouting through the husk and growing to the ground where it was lodged.”

Bad things happened

Whatley says he got all the grain out around the first of July. But the things that went wrong with cotton also hurt the grain crops. “Things that can go wrong happened in sorghum, cotton, and corn.

“We had heavy rains right in the middle of picking cotton that cut yield. We usually harvest the worst cotton first. We got it picked and then got all the rain.”

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He says a few areas had excellent rain for the grain crops. “Four miles down the road, it didn’t rain and it’s average.”

Prices too low

To make matters worse, “corn is down a dollar a bushel; cotton is off 20 cents.”

Popp says a lot of  “immaculately kept fields were inundated with grass and weeds that took advantage of drying down corn. That delayed harvest. Cotton suffered extensive damage from boll rot and hard-locked bolls. A good portion of the bottom crop was ruined. The more mature the crop, the more extensive the damage. Cottonseed quality is also a concern as some sprouting did occur.”

“It’s a tough year, Whatley says. And it affects more than just farmers.

Infrastructure losses

“Gins, warehouses, merchants, suppliers, all along the chain, suffer with a bad crop and low profits. We face a lot of factors that are hurting agriculture. It is cutting into the farm infrastructure.”

Popp says the combination of weather, production costs, prices below breakeven for most yield scenarios, uncertainty surrounding the farm bill, green energy projects (solar and wind) that are removing thousands of acres of prime farmland from production in the region contribute to a bleak outlook.

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