{"id":16895,"date":"2012-08-23T07:00:05","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T12:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=16895"},"modified":"2012-08-27T09:13:46","modified_gmt":"2012-08-27T14:13:46","slug":"how-the-midwest-drought-is-affecting-a-still-recovering-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/08\/23\/how-the-midwest-drought-is-affecting-a-still-recovering-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Midwest Drought is Affecting a Still-Recovering Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_16907\"  class=\"wp-caption module image center\" style=\"max-width: 594px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/08\/23\/how-the-midwest-drought-is-affecting-a-still-recovering-texas\/us-weather-drought\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16907\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-16907\" title=\"US-WEATHER-DROUGHT\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/08\/150403795.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"594\" height=\"403\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/08\/150403795.jpg 594w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/08\/150403795-300x203.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 594px) 100vw, 594px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by SAUL LOEB\/AFP\/GettyImages<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rotting corn damaged by severe drought on a farm near Bruceville, Indiana last week. Record heat throughout the US farm belt states have curtailed crop production and likely will send corn and soybean prices to record highs, according to the US Department of Agriculture.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s a sad irony that just as much of Texas has <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/drought\/\">pulled out of exceptional drought<\/a>, the rest of the country\u00a0has entered into it. But even though the severely dry weather is now outside of Texas\u2019 borders, that doesn\u2019t mean the state isn\u2019t feeling the effects.<\/p>\n<p>Remember last year when the Texas drought forced ranchers to sell off their herds or ship cattle to parts of the country where there was enough hay to feed them?<\/p>\n<p>Well, times have changed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of those cattle that went up north last year are now heading back south,\u201d\u00a0says Bexar County Agrilife Extension agent Brian Davis.<\/p>\n<p>When you look at a<a href=\"http:\/\/droughtmonitor.unl.edu\/\"> map of the drought<\/a> in the U.S. this summer, it almost looks like last year\u2019s weather pattern is turned on its head. The entire middle part of the country is suffering through something much like what Texas <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/tag\/life-by-the-drop\/\">suffered through<\/a> last year. And what do they grow in the middle part of the country? Well, among other things, corn. And it turns out that corn is key to understanding how drought in the Midwest is affecting Texas. Not to sound too insensitive about it, but, in a certain way, their loss is our gain.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/08\/09\/san-antonios-lessons-for-a-nation-parched-by-drought\/\">San Antonio\u2019s Lessons for a Nation Parched By Drought<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/08\/08\/welcome-to-the-dry-hot-american-summer\/\">Welcome to the Dry, Hot American Summer<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/08\/03\/while-drought-hurts-farming-its-actually-helping-the-gulf\/\">While Drought Hurts Farming, It\u2019s Actually Helping the\u00a0Gulf<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/07\/24\/feds-open-up-conservation-land-to-drought-stricken-ranchers\/\">Feds Open Up Conservation Land To Drought-Stricken Ranchers<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/07\/11\/texas-biggest-cash-crop-cotton-makes-gradual-rebound\/\">Texas\u2019 Biggest Cash Crop, Cotton, Makes Gradual Rebound<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/119835727-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/drought\/\">Everything You Need to Know About the Texas Drought<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/04\/Screen-Shot-2012-05-02-at-1.42.38-PM.png\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/drought-app\/\">An Interactive Look at the Texas Drought<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cCorn production is up,&#8221; Davis says. &#8220;We\u2019re seeing above average on the bushel weights coming out of the fields and the prices are looking better than they had in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s simple supply and demand. With the Midwest in drought, corn and other crops are a valuable commodity this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you have water, obviously when the commodity prices are up, you\u2019re going to take advantage of that,\u201d says Chuck Ahrens, the vice president of Water Resources and Conservation with the San Antonio Water System.<\/p>\n<p>But Ahrens says what\u2019s good news for farmers is not necessarily good for nearby cities, like his. Because farmers are planting more crops later in the season around San Antonio, the aquifer the city relies on depleted faster than anyone expected over the last few weeks, though it<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mysanantonio.com\/news\/environment\/article\/SAWS-gamble-pays-off-after-rain-3802121.php\"> did make a significant comeback<\/a> after recent rains.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_16365\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/08\/09\/san-antonios-lessons-for-a-nation-parched-by-drought\/photo22\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-16365\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-16365\" title=\"Ahrens San Antonio\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/08\/photo22-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/08\/photo22-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2012\/08\/photo22-620x463.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\"> <\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charles Ahrens is VP of Water Resources and Conservation for the San Antonio Water System.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cAnytime the aquifer is dropping at a rate that\u2019s not usual, it\u2019s certainly a concern. However, those farmers have permits that are issued to them in a lawful manner and it\u2019s their right to use that water,\u201d Ahrens said.<\/p>\n<p>The corn connection doesn\u2019t stop there. It\u2019s also sending ripples through another major Texas industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTen percent of U.S. gasoline is made up of ethanol, so certainly an increase in corn prices are putting upward pressure on ethanol and some modest upward pressure on gasoline,&#8221; says\u00a0Robert Dye, chief economist with Comerica Bank in Dallas.<\/p>\n<p>Dye says the heat and dry weather are also pushing the price of natural gas up ever so slightly as more of us are running our AC units. The drought might also affect fossil fuels in other ways as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re seeing that the ongoing drought is impeding river freight traffic. And there\u2019s a great deal of freight that goes up and down the Mississippi River,\u201d Dye says.<\/p>\n<p>Dye is not sure what that means for gas prices, but other analysts have said it could make it difficult to get necessary chemicals to oil refineries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Remember last year when the Texas drought forced ranchers to sell off their herds? Well, times have changed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":16907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[61,140,166],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16895"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16895"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16913,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16895\/revisions\/16913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}