Texas Farmers Watered Crops Knowing They Wouldn't Grow
Last summer, during the height of the drought, West Texas farmers kept watering their cotton crops despite knowing they wouldn't grow. They needed to do so to qualify for federal crop insurance.
"It's as if you're watching a guy in the Sahara Desert pour out water," said Stewart Rogers, who manages a cotton farm near Lubbock. Farmers hate wasting a resource, he added, so "it just angers everybody, too."
Plenty of West Texas farmers found themselves in this situation last year. The most intense drought in recorded Texas history meant that it was so hot and dry ...
Comments (11)
Kevin Williams via Texas Tribune on Facebook
It takes federal gov't regs to produce this level of stupidity!
Dolores Byrd Richardson Magee via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I think Texas should require restaurants to not serve water unless the customer asks for it.
Billy Howe
Great article, Kate. It did a great job describing the "no win" situation both irrigated and dry land farmers found themselves in to try and mitigate their losses.
As our state director, Russell Boening, testified last week to the House Natural Resources Committee, the other piece that makes not sense is that the low crop yield last year will actually LOWER future crop insurance coverage. A farmer's coverage is based on their average yield. Many farmers had a ZERO yield last year. That is pretty damaging to their average.
Cris Sleightholm
"drip irrigation" "record yields"
Sounds like farmers need to rethink their irrigation practices.
Betty DuBose Hamilton via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I'm not a farmer, so I don't know, but it sounds as though it is not GOV regulations, but INSURANCE rules since it is for "crop insurance." Somebody please inform me.
Ron Blancarte via Texas Tribune on Facebook
This isn't stupidity - they want to prevent fraud. Otherwise, farmers would just let their crops wither and get their insurance payouts. It is a system that needs work clearly - but it has to be done carefully - otherwise you open up the system to fraud.
Neil Moyer via Texas Tribune on Facebook
TX farmer socialists just plain dumb; but, they still want us to subsidize their stoopidity...all the while voting straight GOP!
Billy Howe via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Ron, its not fraud prevention when the state is officially in drought according to the official federal monitor but farmers must still plant and irrigate to be eligible for insurance payments. Mr. Moyer, please read the article. The insurance guidelines required them to plant and irrigate, not stupidity. Farmers think it is pretty dumb, too, that they had to incur expenses like these in an officially declared drought.
Donna Mitchell MacKinney via Texas Tribune on Facebook
According to the article, farmers who dripped their water did have successful yields. Maybe farmers who buy crop insurance should be required (and initially helped) to install drip irrigation so that they have a chance to produce even in a drought year. Seems like it is better to pay them to conserve AND produce, than pay them to waste and not produce.
Paul Freeman
I would like to weep for poh ole J.O. Dawdy, but dang if the tears will flow. EWG.ORG reports that ole J.O. pocketed $ 1,081,325.39 in federal farmer welfare from 1995-2010. We don't owe ole J.O. a living. Matter of fact, looks to me like we done already gave at the office. The IRS office. It's good to know, however, that the South Texas rice bandits aren't the only hogs with their multi-milllion dollar snouts in the welfare trough. At least J.O. and the cotton boys pay for the electricity to rape the aquifer. The Lower Colorado River Authority rapes the Colorado River for the rice farmers -- and sells them the water hugely below LCRA's cost;
Cheryl Gonzales
No, Farmer Dawdy, you did NOT have to keep pumping water. You could have refused welfare from the Dept of Ag. just this one year. It's called living within your means. You could have been a true American patriot and thought of the greater good of our country. Why don't you just move to Sweden and be done with it? Guess the farmer's wife needed a new Escalade or the farmer's daughter a celebrity wedding.