When you go four of five years without making a crop, it affects your income. It's a very negative effect. Springer says you see all the things you might expect, like making the old pickup last another year, or squeezing another planting season out of a tractor that has seen better days. It hurts on the farm, and in town, too. Bill Bredemeyer farms near Ballinger and the small community of Winters.
Moisture is precious here, and that's something farmers expect and manage for.
Texas is always a little on the droughty side, but we hope its not always going to be to this severe extent. Bredemeyer says the persistently low commodity prices are an equally severe problem. We're dealing with depression era prices in the year 2000 and with all our other expenses, the economy is leaving agriculture in the dust. Our nation is going to have to take a serious look at that. This young producer is a cattleman, too, but his pastures resemble a moonscape.