Agriculture accounts for just over $1 billion dollars of the Valley’s economy, according to economists at Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Service in Weslaco. That is about 2% of the four-county total of $53 billion, but agriculture remains a vital and diversified industry which is the most widespread in terms of land use.

Agriculture is an industry where so many things are out of the producers’ control, that farmers and ranchers are in effect gamblers on a scale grand, enough to take your breath away.  They either reap the benefits or plow under the bad luck, sometimes both in the same season.

Yet agriculture in 2015 is so far removed from a century ago — or even 50 years ago — when small farms dominated the Valley economy.  Today Valley farmers and ranchers are intimately tied to global markets, shipping grain to China, cattle semen to Australia and gauging the impact of floods in India on the price of cotton and sugar.  Far from static, the Valley ag scene keeps changing:  20,000 acres are now planted in sesame seed.

You can grasp the continuing breadth of Valley agriculture by driving backroads past fields of cotton, cane, corn and cabbage. Agricultural support industries alone – feed, seed, fertilizers, tractors and implements, truckers, crop dusters, processing, storage — add $187 million to the economy.  Four products account for almost half of the region’s ag income:  grain ($178 million), cattle ($109 million), cotton ($99 million) and sugarcane ($52 million).  VBR talked to business owners growing those crops.

Harvest time

Sam Sparks III watched a SRS Farms’ field of white corn being harvested north of Santa Rosa and explained why he chose to be the third generation of his family in agriculture.  “I have such a passion for the business.  It’s my heritage. It’s hard to walk away from something we’re so rooted in. My family has invested and reinvested in the land and infrastructure.  We’ve drilled wells and installed underground pipe lines to increase irrigation efficiency and productivity.”

In addition, Sparks’ family owns Progreso International Bridge, which crosses more grain than any other Valley bridge.  While traditionally much of the region’s corn and sorghum were exported to Mexico, this year China is offering a grain premium, and South Texas produces the first northern hemisphere harvest. “It’s a new avenue, selling to China,” Sparks said. It reduces growers’ cost too, since they don’t have to pay storage waiting for Mexico to take the grain.

SRS Farms’ food-grade white corn moved straight from the field to Azteca Milling in Edinburg, where it is tested thoroughly before being transformed into corn flour.

Webb Wallace, executive director of  LRGV Cotton & Grain Association, explained that acreage shifts between crops based on global future prices and local weather. “Early this year, the (Valley) cotton forecast was down to 100,000 acres.  Once we started getting significant rainfall, we couldn’t get enough planted by the March 31 deadline.”  Only 60,000 acres of cotton went in this year versus 142,000 acres in 2014.  The rain delayed planting of sorghum, which usually covers about 400,000 acres.  Wallace confirmed much of that crop will be shipped to China at a good price.

The small farmer doesn’t exist anymore, Wallace said, because of the cost of equipment. The average farmer has 1,000-2,000 acres of grain sorghum.  And dryland farmers tend to have more land than irrigated farmers.  Eleven cotton gins are still operating.  Cotton production should be 2-4 bales per acre.  Because of the rain, even Willacy dryland cotton will probably produce closer to two bales or more, he said, in comparison to 2014’s 1.5 bales. “The main factor now is having good harvest weather.”

Sam Simmons is a third-generation Cameron County farmer whose grandparents arrived in the Valley in 1923 and worked as sharecroppers.  Simmons farms in partnership with his sons: 1,200 acres of sugar cane, 1,000 of cotton and 700 of sorghum. It was too wet to plant another 500 acres.  His brother and nieces also farm. “Last year we planted more sugarcane because cane prices were a little more favorable. We still have not finished harvesting (last season’s) sugar cane crop,” because of rains.  With next year’s crop already growing, Simmons said sugar yields are down about 50%.

“This is the lowest price on cotton in a long time,” Simmons added, and it is the smallest cotton crop since 1983 because China has so much cotton in storage.  He noted that in 1990, the U.S. exported 25% of the crop while 75% of today’s cotton is destined for export.

Nevertheless, Simmons sees farming as a way of life. “It’s an opportunity to be outside. You feel like you are the steward of the land to pass on to the next generations. For the most part, farmers and the farm community are about as optimistic and friendly a group as you’re likely to meet. My livelihood is based on the same crops as theirs.”

More than one basket

“One thing U.S. farmers are good at is growing. Give us a seed and we will produce.  But when it comes to marketing, we stand with our hands full of grain and ask how much will you give me?’” said Mike England, who lives in a farmhouse north of Mercedes that had belonged to his wife Cricket’s grandparents.  The couple and son Benton operate England Cattle Company, which raises polled, registered Brahma cattle.  “The market is good.  With the drought ended, more ranchers are building up their herds.” And 500 straws of Brahma semen are ready to be shipped to customers in Australia.

Diversification is the norm … and essential.  England used to grow numerous vegetables but concentrates on onions.  This spring, the weekend before his onions were harvested, a three-inch rain ruined the crop. “The best thing to do when you lose like that is to go in and plant something else right away.  Out of sight, out of mind.”

On the other hand, the rain was beneficial. “This is first year we didn’t have to irrigate our corn, ever,” England.  Standing next to a corn field being harvested, he acknowledged the importance of finding reliable businesses to work with.  The grain was being trucked to Garcia Grain for storage and sale.  “They’ve been a good asset to us farmers who produce grain.”  His sorghum, too, will be trucked to Corpus Christi and put on a ship to China.

“We’re still ahead of the mid-80s when we were picking corn and cotton at the same time,” later in the year, England said.  The farm operates with five full-time employees plus as many as 10 more seasonally.

August 2015 cover story by Eileen Mattei