Criminal Justice Connections, Volume 18, Number 12, November/December 2010 Page: 5
12 p. : ill.View a full description of this periodical.
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Timely rains grow bountiful
grain, cotton crops for TDCJhat a difference a little rain makes. For TDCJ, the
right amount of rain at the right times produced a far
greater harvest of grains and cotton this year than in
drought-stricken 2009.
Corn production more than doubled in 2010
from the previous year, with approximately 67.3 mil-
lion pounds harvested from 12,000 acres. Cotton pro-
duction rose from 6,337 bales in 2009 to a projected
9,500 bales this year. Hay production remained about
the same, with 35 million pounds baled on 6,700 acres
across the state.
"We planted a thousand more acres of cotton to
meet the needs of our textile mills, but the production
per acre was higher than normal due to the timely rains
we had," said Garry Kent, deputy director of the Agri-
culture, Land and Minerals Department.
Indeed, rains were plentiful across much of the
state compared to 2009 when drought cut TDCJ corn
production by _o percent and the cotton harvest fell by
25 percent. From January through September 2009,
only 16 inches of rain fell at the Ramsey Unit in Brazo-
ria County compared to 43 inches during the same time
period this year. The Brazoria area, where many TDCJ
crops are grown, normally averages between 35 and 48 inches of rainfall
annually.
"We had sc me good, timely rains hit in the proper amounts, and our
harvest speaks for itself," Kent said.
Gardens managed by Kent's department also benefited from well-
timed rains this year, producing 13 million pounds of more than 30 veg-
etable varieties between January and August. Unit-managed vegetable
gardens produced 2.8 million pounds through August.
Kent said heavy rains that began falling last October came too late to
help the 2009 harvest, but did prep the soil for this growing season. Cotton is harvested at the Ellis Unit in Huntsville.
"It helped us get our subsoil moisture up for planting this year,"
Kent said. "We went into planting season in much better shape, and the rains this year, fortunately, came almost exactly when
you would want them."
Kent said the milo and oats crops were also bountiful, but that he was mast pleased with the cotton and corn harvests.
"That's what we needed to concentrate on most because of last "ear's reduced yields," he said. "So we're happy with it. We're
happy we got the rain. It made for a surplus crop for us, and we're in very good shape going into the winter." *NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010 5
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Texas. Department of Criminal Justice. Criminal Justice Connections, Volume 18, Number 12, November/December 2010, periodical, November 2010; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth902782/m1/5/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.