July 29, 2009

Texas is experiencing its worst drought in 50 years, with US$3.6 billion of crop and livestock losses piling up for the past nine months.

The heat wave has sharply reduced reservoirs and forced about 230 public water systems to declare mandatory water restrictions. Nearly 80 of Texas' 254 counties are in "extreme" or "exceptional" drought, the worst possible levels on the USDA's index.

Texas is the country's top producer of cattle and cotton and a leading provider of other crops. But many other areas of the US have received normal or above-average rainfall this year, which would offset the losses in Texas.

Meteorologists predict relief will come after September, when an El Nino weather pattern of warming currents in the eastern Pacific Ocean is expected to bring up to six months of above-average rainfall.

But by then, farmers and ranchers will have suffered serious economic losses as the drought scorches crops and cattle pastures. Researchers at the AgriLife Extension Service at Texas A&M University say damages are expected to exceed the US$4.1 billion in crop and livestock losses the state experienced during a 2006 drought.

Dry pastures will not sustain the usual number of livestock, forcing some ranchers to sell cattle at reduced prices. Jim McAdams, a past president of the National Cattleman's Beef Association, said if there will be trouble if rain does not fall by early September.

Government assistance should start later this autumn, when US$3 billion of aid starts flowing from a US$290 billion farm bill passed in 2008. Another federal programme that provides money to ranchers who lost calves due to the drought began earlier this month. But Texas leaders have complained the aid is not coming soon enough, given the severity of the losses.