CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas —
The rain the Coastal Bend received this week was extremely beneficial for ranchers who needed it to improve their pasture conditions.
However, for farmers, the timing of the rain was not ideal, and could impact on the county's most important crops.
Scott Frazier is no stranger to harvesting season. The local farmer says that while the rain that Tropical Storm Alberto brought was good for cotton, farmers rushed to pick their grain ahead of the storm.
“Farmers all over the county, all over the South Texas area here, we're busy harvesting grain sorghum. We were all working very long hours and very late into the night harvesting everything we can get.” Frazier said.
Nueces County Extension Agent Jaime Lopez says the rain threatened local grain crops because the grain seeds were already mature.
"It wasn't the best timing for it; if those seeds get wet and stay damp, there is a risk of those seeds spouting," Lopez said. "The fact that we got good breezes blowing, we've got the sun out and drying everything up, it's very beneficial."
He estimates that farmers were able to get around seventy percent of the county's grain sorghum ahead of the storm.
"Farmers were working hard at it the last part of last week and early part of this week trying to get the majority of our sorghum crop out," Lopez said.
As for the rest of the crop, Frazier said he's optimistic that they will survive because of the current weather conditions.
"The seed heads are able to dry out, I don't see a whole lot of damage at this point," Frazier said. "If we get into another rain event where it's cloudy and warm for three or four days, then it could possibly cause some damage, we've had that happen in the past."
Due to the moisture in the soil, Frazier says that it could be anywhere between five and eight days until they can get back in the field and continue harvesting.