SPRING, Texas — As the summer heat rages on, roughly 70% of the state of Texas has been left in moderate to extreme drought conditions.
"I don’t think we’ve had any measurable rain in over a month," said Mike Atkinson, owner of Atkinson Farms in Spring.
The impacts now taking a toll on the cattle industry, leaving many pastures dried out with little to no vegetation - forcing many farmers and ranchers to burn through limited supplies of hay.
"We shouldn’t have to start feeding any hay until maybe mid-October, maybe November," Atkinson explained. "The people who own cattle and don’t have their own hay, and hadn’t already put the hay in the barn, they’re going to get desperate.”
For Atkinson and his cattle, he's been prepared months in advance.
"We’ve got our own hay equipment, so we don’t have to worry about buying any of it or getting anybody to cut it and get it ready to go," said Atkinson.
His biggest challenge is keeping an eye on the 3 million gallons of water in his well system.
"So just a dripline that’s buried in there, you see the little blue line right here, it's not going right now but it takes about a tenth of the water to run this, and it’ll put out about 4 gallons a day," he explained.
His water system is having to work overtime to keep his summer crops thriving.
"If we lost all the wells today and as hot as it is and as dry as it is and we can’t keep anything going, we’d only be about ten days out and then we’d be done," said Atkinson.
With no relief in sight, "You just roll with the punches," said Atkinson.
For Atkinson Farms, it’s a matter of conserving what he already has while waiting things out as this dry summer rages on.
"Tell them weathermen to put some rain out here, all the cattlemen in Texas need rain," laughed Atkinson.