Drought in Texas, July 1 to 31, 2006

Economical impacts from the long-term drought which began in late 2005 over the Southern Plains of the U.S. worsened over the extreme southern Texas Panhandle and the west Texas South Plains through the month of July. Extreme (D3) drought conditions were prevalent over the extreme southeastern panhandle by the end of the month, with severe (D2) drought conditions observed elsewhere east of the Interstate 27 corridor. The agricultural portion of the region's economy was drastically impacted. Local farmers and agricultural officials reported increased losses in July, with 98% of the dryland cotton crops across the South Plains and southern Texas Panhandle failing to emerge. At least 670,000 acres of cotton were destroyed due to the lack of water during the month of July.Additional cotton crops also were destroyed by drought related haboobs and other convectively triggered dust storms. At least 7,000 acres of drought-stressed crops were destroyed by a haboob on July 12th.The drought also impacted many area ranchers. The lack of rain during the growing season resulted in poor hay crops. This caused the price of hay to exceed $130 per ton; up from only $80 per ton one year ago. Ranchers have had difficulty affording hay to feed the cattle, thus many head of cattle have been sold at very early ages resulting in lower selling prices.