Central Texas gets drought relief Posted On: Saturday, Oct. 10 2009 05:39 AM By Dirk Aaron
Bell County Extension Agent

The big news around town is an obvious one – the rain.

Parts of Bell County have had more than 12 inches of rain since the beginning of August. The drought that was plaguing most of Central Texas over the summer has almost dissipated with these recent thunderstorms and heavy rain falls.

At the extension office in Belton, the Master Gardeners weather station recorded 2 inches in August and 10 inches in September. And in October, the report as of 7 a.m. Friday, was 4 inches as the rain was still falling.

Don Wyatt, a Bell County Master Gardener who monitors the weather station, said, "The new ET irrigation controller at the extension office provides an electronic accounting of rain and temperature on site for daily readings. The station is the very newest technology in the industry."

The Associated Press reported this week that "about 6.8 percent of Texas, all in the southern and central parts of the state, is classified under the most extreme two categories of drought, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's drought monitor map shows. That's down from 12.3 percent last week but higher than the 3.6 percent a year ago."

In Bell County, the rain brings much needed relief, but can also cause problems for local agriculture businesses.

The farmers who have already planted their oats and rye grass are experiencing problems with fall armyworm infestations. And the farmers who still need to plant, can't get into their fields with their equipment because it's too muddy and the soil is too wet.

Ranchers with livestock are finally receiving some much needed stock pond surface water runoff though. Water has been seriously depleted in these ponds due to the summer drought.

But like any old rancher would say, "You never complain about the rain, you'll never know when it'll come back."