The last couple years of drought have hit cotton farmers in West Texas hard, and farmers are taking a number of paths to manage their losses.

Mark Kelley, an extension agronomist with AgriLife Extension Services explained the dry weather was just the start of the problem in 2011.

“We had no sub-soil moisture,” Kelley said, “and no rainfall to replace it.”

And the weather harmed crops in other ways, Kelley said.

“It wasnΆt just the lack of rain,” Kelley said. “It was the unrelenting winds, which pulled moisture from the soil.”

Last year started out better, Kelley said, but it was still a dry year.

“As the season progressed the rain kind of shut off,” Kelley said. “We are still considered to be in a drought situation.”

This year Kelley expects farmers in the Panhandle north of Tulia to be in fairly good shape.

“We know what the forecasts are,” Kelley said, “but we donΆt know what will happen.”

The forecasts arenΆt good for much of West Texas, but Kelley is optimistic because he pointed out the forecasts have been wrong before.

With the dry last couple years, some may wonder why farmers are still growing cotton and not changing crops.

“Cotton is still the most productive crop (in this region),” Kelley said, “it has the least risk.”

And part of the reason was explained by AgriLife State Cotton Specialist Gaylon Morgan.

“They adjust their reproduction based on the environment,” Morgan said. “They will abort fruit when stressed, then when it gets moisture it will put fruit on.”

Other crops like corn have a small window where they need to be irrigated, and as a result, they donΆt grow as well in the unpredictable climate of West Texas.

“That is why weΆre so committed to cotton in our area,” Morgan said. “YouΆre more likely to have a harvestable crop.”

The AgriLife services in West Texas are focusing research on identifying breeds of cotton with more drought resistance and finding the best time of the year for watering the crop.

Kelley said some farmers are irrigating fewer acres, and focusing the water they have on a smaller area.

Steve Thoman, a farmer in Cochran County near Morton, is an example.

“We donΆt spend as much to make a crop,” Thoman said.

Thoman is irrigating less, but also putting down less fertilizer, tilling less and spending less on labor.

“In 2012, it was the first time in my life I missed two crops in a row,” Thoman said.

Even with these drought conditions, Thoman sees cotton as the best choice for him.

“There is not another crop which is more water efficient than cotton is,” Thoman said.

Another option Kelley said some farmers have chosen is no-till or minimal-till farming.

This is something farmer Barry Evans has been doing since 1996. When rain falls on tilled soil, Evans said, the first inch or so of rain will soak in, but will also compact the soil into a sealed surface which causes remaining rainfall to runoff more. A non-tilled or minimally tilled field has organic debris remaining, which breaks up the falling rain drops and allows more soil saturation.

“Why the organic material is important,” Evans said, “is it acts like a sponge and helps hold the water.”

The concept tilling and loosening the soil creates more infiltration, Evans said, is the opposite of the truth.

Another step the Swisher County farmer has taken to improve soil saturation is allowing fields to remain unplanted for longer periods.

“We can hold a good amount of moisture in our soil,” Evans said. “So, if we can keep land out longer, we can bank more rainfall.”

But it comes with the cost of lost income from the land, Evans explained.

A standard planting cycle for Evans was planting cotton in spring and harvesting in the fall. This was an annual course of business. Now, he is planting cotton the first spring, harvesting the first fall, waiting until the next fall to plant a crop of wheat, harvesting it in the spring, and then in the third year once again planting cotton in the spring. The crop of wheat serves to create organic material is improve rain absorption and adds nutrients to the soil.

In the end what counts most is rainfall though, Evans said.

“You can do everything right,” Evans said, “but if you donΆt have rain, it donΆt matter.”

The decline of the Ogallala Aquifer in recent years, Evans said, makes farmers more dependent on moisture from rain.

Leaving what Evans calls “stubble” in the field also serves to stop wind erosion. The ideal stubble for him is about a foot high, it acts to slow down the wind at the surface and holds the soil together.

Evans wonΆt make a guess on what 2013 will be like in cotton production.

“You can have a great spring,” Evans said, “and a horrid summer and not grow squat.”

North of Lubbock, Dan Krieg hopes the drought is over, he points out there hasnΆt been three years of drought since the 1950s.

“This whole area canΆt tolerate three years of drought,” Krieg said.

So far this year is looking better than 2011, Krieg said, and added it was similar to last year.

As a result of the years of drought, Krieg planted all his dryland farmland with grain sorghum last year and hasnΆt tilled it so he would have residual organic matter.

Like others, rainfall is important to his cropΆs success. His wells havenΆt recovered from the dry years of 2011 and 2012. Additionally, he said water being pumped out of the Ogallala Aquifer in Roberts County by the Canadian River Municipal Water Association is limiting the recharge rate of his wells.

This year he plans on growing cotton on all of his irrigated land, but only on a third of his dryland acres. In a normal year it would be 100 percent cotton.

Randy and Alton Cook are farmers in OΆDonnell. They also planted grain sorghum in response to drought years.

But their focus has been on changing their fertilizer practices. They started testing their soil, not just at the surface like other farmers do, but deeper than 6 inches. They said drought conditions over the last couple years means much of the soil still has nutrients below the surface 6 inches. Rainfall this season would have washed nutrients out of the top soil.

“There is a lot of money in the soil,” Alton Cook said, “farmers arenΆt aware of it.”

By testing the soil they know where fertilizer is needed. And they are also irrigating differently, in part because of poor well water quality in the area.

“You have to have rain with our water to produce a crop,” Randy Cook said.

In 2011 the Cooks shutoff irrigation water to a quarter of their fields. About 90 percent of their fields are dryland farming.

“You have to do what is economically feasible,” Randy Cook said. “Water is not free and it is not cheap.”

Joe Alspaugh, a farmer east of Lubbock, is waiting to start watering until there is a decent amount of rain.

“WeΆre going to let it rain and supplement the rain,” Alspaugh said, “not let the rain supplement us.”

While Alspaugh is planning on planting the same number of acres with cotton, he expects to irrigate fewer acres with a lower volume of water. He only grows cotton at this point, he cut out his cover crop to save water. But what he needs like all the farmers is rain.

“We canΆt survive without a rain,” Alspaugh said.