Texas dairy producing steady stream despite challenges
By Jennifer Whitlock
Field Editor
The COVID-19 pandemic and Winter Storm Uri were a one-two punch to Texas dairy farmers, but the industry has recovered and milk production in the state continues to climb, according to Texas Association of Dairymen Executive Director Darren Turley.
The relatively mild summer has kept supplies steady.
“The cooler weather this year is a big impact on our production because we really have not seen the summer fall-off that we usually do,” Turley said in an interview with the Texas Farm Bureau Radio Network. “Now that August is here, we’re not sure what will happen. I think Texas summer is going to show up, but it’s about that time. So, we’re expecting it.”
National Dairy Month started out as a way to distribute extra milk during the warm months of summer. The commemoration was established in 1937 by grocer organizations sponsoring “National Milk Month.” By 1939, June became the official “dairy month.”
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Well before the sun finally broke through the cloudy and icy haze in Texas Rio Grande Valley last week, Dale Murden knew he was in for a bad spell.
After a few days of clearer skies and warmer weather let him assess the damage to his grapefruit orchard in Harlingen more closely, the South Texas citrus grower confirmed his fears. As time goes on, it ll start to look worse, said Murden, who is also the president of Hidalgo County-based Texas Citrus Mutual.
The winter storm that paralyzed Texas for days last week is going to have lasting effects on Murden and his fellow citrus growers in the Rio Grande Valley after the extended freeze killed millions of pounds of citrus. The storm also brought the state s dairy industry, concentrated in the Panhandle, to a near standstill when widespread power outages halted processing.
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