Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
A surge of timely rain in Roosevelt County and some unwelcomed hail near the Texas state line over the weekend has brought both joy and unrest to local farmers.
While the rain over the weekend was a welcome commodity to the west side of the sun-baked county, hail on the east side conjured quite a different story, wiping out hundreds of acres of farmland.
At portions of Brashears Farms three miles west of Texas and northeast of Portales, Greg Brashears said he lost about 120 acres of wheat and about 300 acres of cotton. There was also sporadic damage to planted corn.
“This hail was probably some of the worst I’ve had,” Brashears said.
Brashears said he will attempt to replant the cotton and corn, but will not try to cultivate more wheat, something he described as a “total loss” of about $25,000.
He said his insurance will cover about a third of the monetary losses.
On some of Brashears’ farmland to the west near Portales, crops received what he described as a “good rain” of about one inch, about 2 1/2 to 3 inches less than his land near Texas.
One farmer near the county line lost several circles of potatoes, crops Brashears described as high dollar.
While farmers to the east took the brunt of the damages from hail, farmers to the west were reveling in the added precipitation.
Judy Chandler, wife of farmer Jim Chandler, said they received about .8 inches of rain on their farm near Floyd, which was good.
“We didn’t have a party, but I’m planning on buying a car,” Judy Chandler joked.
Jim Chandler is harvesting peanuts, cotton and corn, she said.
To sum up the lighter rains to the west, Roosevelt County Agriculture Extension Agent Floyd McAlister said moisture is more often than not welcome to area farmers this time of year, especially after a dry spell.
“The moisture (without hail) was sure good for all crops,” McAlister said. “The only crops it’s maybe detrimental to at the moment would be any alfalfa that happened to be laying on the ground, but everything else sure needed the moisture.”
