Harvey Ruins Banner Year for Cotton, Ag Continues to Assess Storm Damage

Hurricane Harvey arrived on the Texas coast as harvest began for what the state expected to be a bumper crop of cotton.

The storm came at what one cotton gin operator called “the worst possible time.” Harvest was about 10 percent complete.

It has been impossible in the days since Harvey hit to evaluate the damage to agriculture, but the visuals suggest devastation.

Cotton was wrapped around 50-foot-high power lines, according to Josh McGinty, a Texas AgriLife Extension agronomist in Corpus Christi.

He spoke specifically about the devastation at Bayside, Texas. He said only 25 percent of the cotton modules on the yard remained after Harvey. The rest are simply gone. Cotton torn from modules is knee deep.

“It looks like a bomb went off,” he said.

The devastation to cropland and harvested crops would be bad in any year, McGinty acknowledged, but the loss is particularly painful this year.

“A lot of farmers say they were making a once-in-a-decade cotton crop,” he said. “We were seeing three- and four-bale cotton. It is sad to see that get taken away. Our grain crops were harvested and either in the bins or the ports. They are not going anywhere for a while, with the ports closed, but farmers were not going to make money from grain anyway. We were counting on the cotton crop to save us.”

A Texas ag economist said he does not expect significant disruptions of commodities moving through Houston’s main shipping port as the region recovers from the storm.

“I do believe there might be some delays on some shipments of grain, cotton and beef, but it’s hard to tell because other ports can be used as well,” said Luis Ribera, Ph.D., director of the Center for North American Studies at Texas A&M University in College Station.

For livestock producers, the state set up animal supply points and shelters. Cattle auction markets closed in the days immediately after the hurricane but began to reopen over the weekend.

Sources: Southeast Farm Press Daily, National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service, AgriLife Extension