Drought conditions are expected to continue throughout the South Plains Region as summer nears.
Extension Agent and Integrated Pest Management for Hockley and Cochran Counties Kerry Siders explained that even with colder temperatures throughout the week the region is still in a drought.
“Technically we’re still in the drought,” Siders said. “We’ve had some clouds; we’ve had some sprinkles. It’s been a little bit cooler but just because it’s has not hot the past couple days doesn’t mean we’re not in a drought.”
Siders explained the area is in the same condition as this time last year. Even though water could be an issue, Siders believes future warm temperatures could have people planting within the next seven to 10 days.
“Right now, we’re probably in the same mode as we were this time last year being very conservative about inputs into the crop, fertilizer, herbicides, tillage and all the things that go into making a crop not just in season but also preseason like we are now,” Siders said. “I mean the soil temperature is good. We could probably be planting here in the next seven to 10 days.”
The National Weather Service had previously predicted chances of rain in the area that have not happened in order to break the drought.
“I think that disappointed a lot of producers in general and others that kind of keep track of that for agriculture,” Siders said. “It’s been disappointing that we’ve had some rain chances and they haven’t played out yet.”
Siders explained producers will accept any rain over the summer, but rain is needed now to store moisture in the soil profile.
“Rains always good, don’t get me wrong but for this crop and for our commitment to that crop, we really need it,” Siders said. “We already needed it, it needed to have been here already to store moisture in the soil profile.”
Three inches of slow rainfall will store water in the soil profile of the top three feet of soil. This will aide plants throughout the growing stages.
“We typically store water in the top three feet of the soil, and we typically store about an inch per foot, so we really need 3 inches of rain,” Siders said. “Now, it’s gonna take more than three inches because when it rains you lose some to run off and depending on the intensity, if it’s a slow rain, obviously it’s soaks in. If it’s a fast, heavy rain that’s when it tends to run off. It may take five or six inches to actually store three inches of moisture in the top three feet.”
Siders explained that irrigation cannot be utilized to store water in the soil profile. Water is a dwindling resource in the South Plains Region that makes irrigation a luxury.
“We need moisture now and we can’t make that up with irrigation. We just don’t have those kind of water resources anymore,” Siders said. “We’re seeing producers that are preirrigating, they’re irrigating now to build up some of that storage so that they have it, but not everybody has those kind of water resources. It’s not a luxury like we used to have 10 to 20 years ago.”
Homeowners should be conservative with water usage in their homes and when watering lawns and gardens.
“We don’t have that kind of water resources and that’s why it’s important even for homeowners and businesses to be as conservative as they can, even on their lawns and gardens, because literally nobody has those kind of water resources any longer,” Siders said. “What water we do have, we supplement rainfall we’ve got to have rainfall to grow anything, whether again it’s plants in our lawns or gardens or crop, we have to have rain.”
Even though there have been isolated areas receiving rainfall in the South Plains Region, Hockley County has not been one of them.
“There’s been some isolated areas on the South Plains that have received that,” Siders said, “but in general, we’ve not seen these widespread rain cells that have brought a lot of folks a good rain and particularly in Hockley County. So, it’s critical.”
With rising temperatures Siders expects to see a rise in producers beginning to plant crops.
“As we get back into some 80-degree temperatures, which I think over the next couple of days that they are looking to be back near 80, we could see some cotton planters running,” Siders said, “but I really think it’ll be next week if not closer to May 10th before we really start seeing cotton planters running in earnest.”
Siders expects the drought to break over the summer but is not able to pinpoint when the break will happen.
“I do anticipate the drought breaking but when will that happen,” Siders said. “It could be in May. Most likely it’ll be early June, but it wouldn’t be unreasonable to have rains in July that might break this thing. I’m not saying it’s too late. Again, as I said earlier, rains are always welcome, we’ll never turn that away, but we need that drought to break now and not in June or July.”