Country World

Ron Gertson, a fourth generation rice farmer from Wharton County, said the rice industry in Texas is at its most critical point in history.

"With what we're looking at now, I'm predicting we'll have the lowest overall acreage in more than 100 years in Texas," he said. "Just looking at the surface water providers, and where the reservoirs are now, and added with the groundwater provisions, rice production is going to be cut by about 51 percent. We had about 179,000 acres last year, and we'll be down about half of that."

After a good year in 2011, rice farmers now face the prospect -- a very likely prospect -- that they will receive no water from the Lower Colorado River Authority next year. During the growing season, rice fields are flooded about three or four inches deep to choke off weeds while the rice stalks mature. The fields are then drained and a first crop of rice is harvested around mid-July, leaving the stalks. The stalks' roots keep growing and, with a little more water, a second or "ratoon" crop is harvested in the fall. Rice farmers like Gertson, in Southeast Texas, where the bulk of Texas rice is grown, get the water to do this from the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA).

Unless the Highland Lakes receive considerable rainfall over the next few months, the LCRA will cut off all water to the rice farmers in 2012. The LCRA board approved a plan in September that will cut the flow to farmers if water stored in lakes Travis and Buchanan is less than 850,000 acre-feet on March 1. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality approved the measure in early December.

"We need big soaking rains in the Hill Country, where the LCRA's reservoirs are located," Gertson said. "The odds of us getting enough rain between now and March 1 are not very good. It's going to take a lot of rain to get the lakes to 850,000 acre feet." An acre foot represents about 326,000 gallons of water, or the amount of water it takes to cover an acre of land one foot deep in water.

As of the second week in December, lake levels at Lake Travis and Buchanan were a combined 741,000 acre feet, or about 37 percent of capacity, according to the LCRA website. That would leave the lakes needing about 109,000 acre feet of additional water to hit the 850,000 acre feet level. The LCRA has said that it wants to ensure that water is not released to start a crop next year and then suddenly cut off. In that case, the water would be wasted since the crop would be ruined if water were cut off mid-crop.

The current plan was created from a compromise of LCRA stakeholders, including rice farmers. Under the measure, which amends at 2010 LCRA Water Management Plan, LCRA will cut off Highland Lakes water to the rice farmers if the lakes contain less than 850,000 acre-feet of water on March 1. If the lakes contain between 850,000 and 920,000 acre-feet of water on March 1, the farmers will get 125,000 acre-feet of water and the water will be available only for the first crop with pumping not to begin before April 1. If the lakes contain more than 920,000 acre-feet of water on March 1, LCRA will revert to its original 2010 Water Management Plan.

The LCRA usually makes its allotments based on Jan. 1 levels, but part of the compromise included pushing the date up to March 1.

"That gives us a little window of hope," Gertson said. "The odds aren't good of getting enough rain over those two months to do any good, but it does provide us a little time and a little hope."

Mo Way, a professor of entomology and one of the state's premiere rice researchers for Texas AgriLife Extension, said that yields were good all across the Texas rice belt this year, despite getting off to a slow start because of, ironically, cool weather. The biggest factor in the early part of the season was the wind, he said.

"The main crop was very good," Way said. "The milling was good. A lot of farmers got 8,000 pounds on the main crop, and 4,000 to 5,000 on the second crop. You had some people who were making 10,000 pounds per acre on two crops. We did have some cases where the second crop was erratic, and we're not sure why."

"That's about the only good thing to come out of this year," Gertson said. "This year was good enough that it will give some farmers a chance to tighten their belt and try to get through next year. Right now, rice farmers are double-checking their crop insurance and preparing for basically an idle year."

Prices right after harvest were fairly strong, but Gertson added that a lot of Texas rice is still in storage, awaiting better prices.

"It (the rice market) is kind of hard to figure out right now," he said. "There are strong indicators in both directions. A lot of it depends on the euro and what happens to European economies. If Europe doesn't get its monetary system fixed, rice is going to be a big loser."

Way and Gertson both said the hot, dry weather was a mixed blessing for rice farmers, cutting down as it did on some of the fungal and pest problems that routinely plague rice crops. Both expressed concern not only for the 2012 rice crop, but for research that has resulted in high-yield hybrids, but also created some fertility issues, primarily with instances of excessive applications of nitrogen and some potassium deficiencies. Those issues, along with panicle blight, narrow leaf brown spot and problematic weed issues are some of the areas where more critical research is needed, Way said.

Rice farmers, Gertson said, are fairly fatalistic about the situation they find themselves in now. They had a brush with these kinds of restrictions in 2009, but heavy rains in the Hill Country in late 2009 made the difference. The experience, however, steeled farmers for what they are facing next year.

"A lot of us were able to see this coming mid-year," Gertson said. "Then we missed all the tropical storms, even though it was supposed to be an active season, but it did nothing for us. We knew what was going to happen if we didn't get those rains. A lot of farmers were somewhat resigned to it."

Rains that fell on the Hill Country the first couple of weeks of December were welcome, but did little to fill up the lakes. The parched landscape soaked up most of it, with very little running off into the lakes and tributaries. The situation for rice farmers is as bad as Gertson has ever seen it.

"I've never seen anything like this," he said.