LUBBOCK, Texas — There’s no question that West Texas has seen it’s share of severe weather in the last few weeks. Usually rainfall this time of the year is a good thing for farmers, but this time it’s been a little too much.
Now, it’s affecting when farmers can plant to make their insurance deadlines.
“The hail, the hard winds, hard rain, isn’t good this time of year for farmers,” said Brandon Brieger, a cotton farmer in Wolfforth and Ropes.
Growing up in a farming community, Brieger said dealing with severe weather is nothing new for farmers on the South Plains.
But, a spokesperson for the Plains Cotton Growers said this year has been particularly bad, affecting all the farmers in the community. With the combination of flooding, heavy rain, winds and hail across the area, many farmers are rushing to get their crops in before looming insurance deadlines.
“We do our best to make sure that doesn’t happen but Mother Nature doesn’t always give us us the best warning,” Brieger said.
The deadline for parts of our region are as early as May 31. Those are the more northern areas. The central areas deadline is June 5 and the southern regions’s deadline is June 10.
If farmers don’t get their crop in by these deadlines, then they aren’t eligible for federal crop insurance, which protects their money if a crop gets ruined by severe weather.
“It’s really hard to predict where you need to be at one point in time, especially in the farming industry,” Brieger said.
With more possible severe weather on the way in the next few weeks, farmers continue to hope for the best.
