Farmers Scuffle Through Record South Texas Drought

South Texas is in the midst of its worst-ever drought.

While swaths of the state have somewhat recovered from the historic dry spell of 2011, farmers in the Rio Grande Valley are dealing with massive crop losses in which entire fields have been wiped out.

The entire region is in severe, extreme or exceptional drought and crop losses are mounting as insurance adjusters travel field to field. Agriculture officials have predicted losses of cotton, corn and grain sorghum crops could double the region’s $50 million lost in 2006, though the claims are still coming in.

The National Weather Service says for a 30-month period ending in March, 30 inches of rain fell in the Rio Grande Valley, which was 8 inches less than the previous record holder in the 1950s.