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In Texas, Drought Takes A Toll On Farmers

RACHEL MARTIN, host:

Just a few hundred miles west of the Mississippi, in parts of Texas, rainy days are in short supply; so short that Governor Rick Perry issued a proclamation last month asking Texans to pray for rain.

So far, that hasn't worked, and the drought's taking a toll on farmers like Curt Mowery. He grows grain sorghum, soybeans and corn on his farm near Rosharon, 50 miles south of Houston.

Mr. CURT MOWERY (Farmer): It's extremely tough. Most normal months, we should three to five inches of rain. We've missed out on that, and we've had anywhere from half-inch to zero rainfall for the past three months.

(Soundbite of music)

Mr. MOWERY: My dad has always talked about the drought of the '50s that we had in Texas. And generally, these droughts of these magnitudes, usually run in about 50-, 60-year cycles. So are we fixing to run into our drought cycle here in Texas like we did back in the '50s?

MARTIN: That's tough to get your head around, especially when land is being flooded out next door in Louisiana.

Mr. MOWERY: It seems kind of odd that, you know, they're suffering the opposite end of the spectrum that I am, with too much water.

MARTIN: That's farmer Curt Mowery in Rosharon, Texas.

And this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.