AMARILLO, TEXAS -- Even though that little bit of rain helps, it wasn't enough to help deter the state wide drought we are suffering right now.
Today the National Weather Service participated in a conference call that discussed that drought and they tell us, although that little bit of moisture helps lower our fire danger it won't do much for vegetation.
One of the things the experts talked about during that conference call was, why it could soon be even worse for our farmers.
"The drought is actually putting a lot of stress on the vegetation, split farmers crops, their under going a lot of stress with the heat and the dry conditions and the farmers are having to irrigate a lot and it's costing them more money having to irrigate and it's creating a problem for the crops and also for the farmers financially," said Ken Schneider, Senior Forecaster.
The wheat crop is one of the problem areas panhandle farmers have to face right now.
"The wheat crop that we're standing in right now is actually pretty good crop for this year, but it's very thin, it's very short, clearly the yield is going to be below average. A lot of these dry land wheat fields have just completely dried up and are being plowed up and are being abandoned this year as far as wheat crop goes," said Brent Bean, Extension Agronomist.
And according to Bean that's why next month is so crucial, if we don't want the summer crop, to end up like that wheat crop.
"Rain right now is not going to help our wheat crop all that much, our dry land crop, what it's going to hurt though is our dry land summer crop, so right now we're getting ready to plant corn, in fact we are planting corn. We'll be planting cotton in another week, people will start planting cotton, you have to have rain fall for those dry land crops."
Bean went on to say that the immediate need for rain is so important, because they need the top three or four inches wet so the seed will have a chance to germinate and sprout up.
