Our Town: Lamesa farmers faced with lack of rain

LAMESA, Texas (KJTV) - The lack of rain is hurting Lubbock lawns, but for many it affects their livelihood. Farmers are facing a crisis in Lamesa narrowing their chance to turn a profit.

To plant or not to plant. That’s a dilemma facing area farmers. Kirt Tidwell explains it all comes down to rain.

“I can’t speak for everybody, but what I’m personally going to do is hope it rains,” he said, “and if it doesn’t rain in time to plant like we would normally do, we’ll plant it dry and hope for the rains to bring it up.”

He says the outlook is grim with the lack of rain. But this isn’t the first time farmers have faced such a crisis — there’s a new problem this year they have to contend with.

“It was similar this time last year, but we did have a little bit of underground moisture,” Tidwell said. “But we don’t have that this time. It’s significantly dry now.”

He says whether it’s dry or not, farmers expenses have almost doubled. While the price increase of cotton may look nice, farmers would have to produce a lot more to cover those expenses.

Farmers are all in a wait-and-see period as they look at the future of cotton prices.

“It’s hard to say. If we don’t make cotton here it could possibly go up because there won’t be as much of a supply as we have now,” he said. “But the price is good and we have to grow it to take advantage of the prices.”

Farmers continue to look to the skies for answers as they wait for the rains to come.

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