A history of Deaf Smith County, featuring pioneer families Page: 31 of 174
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History
Deaf Smith County
Pioneerstakes "big boys" to stay in the vegetable business.
Prices are based on supply and demand with fast action
characteristics of the market season.
Whatever the plight of individual farmers and processors,
vegetables have come to be tremendously
important in the financial picture in Deaf Smith County.
As many as 800 huge trucks work out of Hereford during
the season; thousands of bags of vegetables are shipped
by rail. Packers often operate their sheds around the
clock.
Among the packing shed and produce handlers in Hereford
in 1963 were: J. K. Baker, Barrett Produce Co.,
Leon Coffin, Deck Produce, Howard Gault Co., A Henry
Sears, local banker; Lee Benefield, president of the Texas
Sugar Beet Growers Association and farmer; and Bob
McLean, Dimmitt banker, as leaders in the fight to secure
favorable legislation. He cited W. S. Hallam, Holly
employee, as helping to interest Merrill E. Shoup, then
president of Holly Corporation, in the project.
Original plans call for the local plant to produce
65,000 short tons per year. W. S. Fisher is assistant
manager for the plant, which will have a slicing capacity
of 6,000 tons of sugar beets per day, running 125 to 135
days per year. This would mean that between 700,000
and 800,000 tons of beets per year would be converted
into refined sugar.
About 23,000 acres of sugar beets are being assigned
by the Holly plant to farmers in Deaf Smith, Castro,
and Parmer Counties in Texas, and Curry County, New
Mexico. Sugar beets have established excellent yield and
sugar content records, assuring substantial income to
farmers from the crop.
The sugar mill is expected to give a tremendous boost
to the economy of the area through its payroll and the
provision of housing, food, services, and commodities
for its employees. Excluding actual profit per acre to
the farmers, a conservative estimate places that boost
above $15,000,000 annually.
By products of the mill to be used in cattle feeding and
grazing of tops from the fields after the beets have been
harvested are further benefits accruing to the area
economy.
Commercial production of sugar beets came into the
Deaf Smith County farm picture for a second time in
1947, when farmers contracted 1,410 acres with the
American Crystal Sugar Company of Rocky Ford, Colo.
George Nixon, supervisor for the company, said beets
made up to 31 tons per acre with an estimated sugar
content of 18 per cent, giving farmers a bonus in price.
In 1949 Walter Hodges, Jr., averaged 24 tons per acre
for the county's high yield; 39 farmers planted some 2,000
acres that year. Farmers continued to contract with that
company until Holly announced in July, 1962 that they
would build the sugar mill here.
Wheat, Grain Sorghum -
Staple Crops
With 300,000 acres planted at one time during the
1930's, wheat was the kingpin of the county. Acreage
has see-sawed between wheat and grain sorghums in
top position for the past few years. Both have declined
somewhat due to allotments and diversion programs.
Wheat led in 1963, with 172,945 acres compared to
138,081 acres in grain sorghums.
However, yields were another story. There were
3,189,556 bushels of wheat harvested and a whopping
8,294,129 bushels grain sorghum from the 1963 crop.
Other crops included: corn, 18,617 bushels; oats, 22,200
bushels; barley, 665,590 bushels; rye, 13,577 bushels;
soybeans, 10,000 bushels; peanuts, 202,900 pounds; alfalfa,
15,500 tons; alfalfa seed, 900 pounds; vetch seed, 7,000
pounds; and sweet potatoes, 845 bushels.
The introduction of grain sorghumhybrids ona commercial
scale in 1957 is probably the determining factor in
record yields being harvested. Sorghum hybrids werelong recognized as a possibility, but it was not until
the summer of 1955 that enough male-sterile milo had
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Patterson, Bessie. A history of Deaf Smith County, featuring pioneer families, book, 1964; Hereford, Tex.. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth16011/m1/31/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Deaf Smith County Library.