By Jason Clay Jansky

With the harvest over in Karnes County, local farmers are looking for a little rain as they get winter crops in the dirt and local firefighters are hoping vegetation is moist by the time of the first big freeze.

Corn, cotton, and grain sorghum yields in the county were above average on the whole this year thanks to a very rainy season that dried out just in time for farmers to get their crops out of the ground.

Areas in some fields with low elevation were ruined because of standing water, but by and large, Karnes County had an abundant spring crop season.

"Overall, the harvest was average to above average. Most everybody was above average in yields," Karnes County Extension Agent Dennis Hale said. "We’re in the time of year now where people are trying to get pastures in — oats, wheat, and rye grass. Whether it’s a winter pasture for cattle or for grain harvest, they’re trying to get them in and this dry weather’s really difficult. We don’t really have any planting moisture."

Rain has only showed up in intermittent showers since the gushing stopped back in August.

"The weather’s been beautiful, don’t get me wrong, but we really could use some moisture to help the winter pastures out," Hale said.

Local firefighters are counting on a bit of the wet stuff, too, according to Karnes City Fire Chief Charlie Malik.

Hale said pastures are more overgrown than usual because many county ranchers sold lots of cattle last year during the drought. Malik said the cattle will eventually eat the grass down like always, but before then, things may be rough for local fire departments.

"Before they do eat it down, you’ll still have that risk. Once the first freeze hits and (vegetation) dies, there will definitely be a serious fire problem out there," he said. "The only advantage in the winter is you have the lower humidity and cooler temperatures, but (grass) still lights and it still burns."

Another positive outcome from all the rain has been the massive hay production in Karnes County.

Last year, hay was extremely scarce and expensive, but ranchers this year are replenishing their reserve supplies thanks to overabundance.

"Everybody made hay this year. Early on it was so wet, no one could cut it, but once it did dry up enough, everybody made hay," Hale said. "The saying is ‘there’s hay everywhere.’ Last year … you couldn’t find a bale. They were buying it out of New Mexico. This year, and I don’t mean this literally, the joke is ‘you can’t give hay away.’ It’s amazing what one year will do."