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Central Texas farmer having a great year

After suffering through one of their worst droughts ever in 2011, farmers in central Texas are having one of their best crop years in 2012.

John Perryman farms near Moody, Texas—midway between Dallas and Austin.  He grows wheat, grain sorghum, cotton and a little bit of corn. 

Perryman says his wheat averaged over 60 bushels per acre this year, and he recently harvested what he calls “a record-breaking sorghum crop” that averaged over five-thousand pounds—or about 90 bushels—per acre.

“We usually shoot for 3,500 to 4,000 pound yields on grain sorghum—so we topped that by quite a bit,” he says.

Cotton harvest is about ready to get underway and Perryman says it also looks like an excellent crop.

“We’ve got probably a bale-and-a-half crop right now—maybe two—I’m hoping for a bale-and-a-half,” he says.

“Our insurance guarantees are probably just a little under one bale—but you’re looking at long-term averages. Last year, during the dry weather, we didn’t hardly make a half a bale of cotton—so it’s about three times what we made last year and about twice of a normal crop.”

Perryman says cotton is usually the big “money-maker” on his farm, but he says cotton prices are depressed this year.  He says the local price is around 65 cents a pound compared to a dollar a pound last year.

AUDIO: John Perryman (8:38 MP3)

 

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