Katy rice farmer has 61st crop in the ground

By MONETTE TAYLOR | South Central Texas

Monroe Morton pipes water from his well to his rice crops -- a necessity he must now pay for under a new plan. -Staff photo byTaylor

May 9, 2002 -- It's Monroe Morton's 61st rice crop in almost 79 years, and the family is a legend in Katy.

Since 1896, there's been a Morton in the Katy area. In fact, the road Morton lives on is named after his grandfather.

"I grew up here right down the road, and we've lived here for 57 years. My dad farmed and I grew up on a farm. He (dad) started farming about 1927," said Morton, who with wife Dot, has two grown sons. They also have four grandchildren.

He said that when his dad was growing up, there were no real roads in the area. When they got ready to go somewhere, they would just "strike out" across the fields in the direction of their destination. In later years the local roads were named after the "old settlers," including his grandfather.

Morton is a rice farmer with 350 acres of crop to show for it. He's also a cow/calf rancher with around 50 head of crossbred cattle in Katy, and a couple of hundred head on their 650-acre ranch in Gonzales. And, he raises Quarter Horses in Katy. He doesn't believe in slowing down.

Until the mid-'80s, his brother farmed along side of Morton, but he retired, leaving Morton the only member of his family still in the rice business.

Both of his sons are working in the oil industry, but help out on weekends and during the harvest season. Even the grandchildren help with the harvest, but as they grow up and leave college and home, their visits become fewer. The Mortons like remembering when the children were younger and loved to come out to the farm. They still love being there, but it's harder for all of them to get together anymore.

This year's first crop was planted in March, after the big freeze, and is doing well. Morton uses well water to irrigate the crop.

"Usually, I do two crops. We'll cut the first crop, fertilize and water the stubble for the second crop," he said.

Normally, the first crop is planted in March/April with a harvest in July. The second crop is harvested in October/November.

"We used to raise a lot of soybeans in this region, but it's such an unsure crop. You can have a beautiful crop going, and it turns off dry and you don't get the rain just at the right time. A lot of work for nothing," said Morton.

He has owned his own rice dryer and 12 bins since '67, when he built them out of necessity.

"Back when we built the dryer ... then there was probably 50-60,000 acres of rice grown in this area, and at harvest time, you couldn't get in a (commercial) dryer," he said.

Rice production in the area is down to about 10,000 acres, according to Morton. He blames the drop in acreage on developments, as well as the price of grains.

"You know, it's been fair, up until the last two years. Last year -- and looks like this coming year -- prices are terrible," said Morton.

"They (government) import a lot of rice to this country because it is cheaper and they're just putting the American farmers out of business."

He feels that losing the export market was a big blow to rice farming and finds it hard to understand how the U.S. government has so many regulations on how you can raise crops and what pesticides can be used in America, yet they import rice that has been raised without rules.

Because the ground in the Harris and Galveston areas is sinking due to water removal, he (along with other farmers) is required to pay for the water pumped out of his own wells, for crops in a pipe larger than four inches, at the rate of $7 per million gallons of water.

"It doesn't make sense, because whatever we apply for, we get. So they haven't cut us down any (amount of water used for crops), we've just got to pay for it. Another bureaucracy, that's what it is," he said.

Morton said he usually floods his crops about four times, before harvest, and has only one permanent employee, Eddie Clark, who's been with him over 40 years.

For a "get-a-way," the Mortons drive to their 650-acre ranch outside of Gonzales. There, he is a rancher and Dot gets to fish in their ponds. He raises some hay for his herd on the land.

Back in Katy, he "winters" his bulls and has about 16 Quarter Horses on the 40 acres by his home. Life is good, and the family still loves to come to the farm and eat Dot's cooking. Morton can't imagine any other life than the one he's living.

"I guess it's the variety. It's not the same thing every day. It's something different all the time," he said, smiling.