Why is agriculture important to texas

Texas raises more sheep and produces more mohair from angora goats than any other state. Texas is the nation's 1 cotton-producer. Other important products in this category are greenhouse and nursery products, corn for grain, hay 3 among the states , and wheat. Texas is a leading 3 producer of greenhouse and nursery products flowers, ornamental shrubs, young trees. Other major field crops in Texas are sorghum grain 2 among the states , peanuts, rice 5 among the states , and cane for sugar.

The leading fruits produced in Texas are watermelons, grapefruits official state fruit and cantaloupes. Important Texas vegetables include onions official state vegetable , potatoes, and cabbages. Texas is the 1 producer of cabbages among the states. Texas is also a leading producer of pecans official health nut. Manufacturers add value to raw products by creating manufactured items. For example, cotton cloth becomes more valuable than a boll of cotton through manufacturing processes.

Texas is a leading manufacturing state. Ranking first in the manufacturing arena is the manufacture of computers and electronic equipment computers, electronic components, military communication systems. The manufacture of chemicals is ranked second in the state. The number and nature of farms have changed over time.

The number of farms in Texas has decreased from , in to , in , with an average size of acres. The number of small farms is increasing, but many are operated by part-time farmers and ranchers. Mechanization of farming continues as new and larger machines replace manpower. Although machinery price tags are high relative to times past, machines are technologically advanced and efficient. Tractors, mechanical harvesters, and numerous cropping machines have virtually eliminated menial tasks that for many years were traditional to farming.

Revolutionary agricultural chemicals and generally engineered traits have appeared along with improved plants and animals. Many of the natural hazards of farming and ranching have been reduced by better use of weather information, machinery, and other improvements; but rising costs, labor availability, and high energy costs have added to the concerns of farmers and ranchers. Precision agriculture takes on new dimensions through the use of satellites, computers, Global Positioning Systems GPS , and other high-tech tools to help producers manage inputs, such as seed, fertilizers, pesticides, and water.

Farms have become fewer, larger, specialized, and much more expensive to own and operate, but are also far more productive. The cattle-feeding industry stimulated the resurrection of corn as an important commodity in Texas. Though corn was a major household-food and livestock-feed crop from the time of initial settlement of the state, acreage devoted to its production declined after World War II as reliance upon animal power dwindled.

However, when skyrocketing sorghum prices threatened the profitability of the cattle-feeding industry after a trading agreement with the Soviet Union in , High Plains irrigation farmers turned to corn hybrids. With normal yields in excess of bushels of grain per acre plus the silage, growers found that they could achieve a good return on their investment and meet the requirements of the feeders.

Besides serving as a cattle feed, corn was valuable as a sweetener, starch, and fuel. Just as scientific and technological achievements had influenced corn raising, they gave farmers a greater flexibility in crop selection. Along with the introduction of commercial vegetable and sunflower production on the High Plains, sugar beets emerged as a valuable crop there during the s, following the erection of the Holly Sugar Company plant at Hereford, Deaf Smith County.

In addition to the vegetable and citrus industries in the Valley, sugarcane reemerged as a crop in the late s. The Spanish and, after , the Florunner varieties of peanuts, the production of which had been centered in such north central Texas counties as Comanche and Eastland for decades, flourished in sandy soils on the High Plains, while commercial orchards in thirty counties of Central and West Texas propelled the state to second place in the production of pecans.

By the s wineries had appeared in West Texas as vineyards added an additional commercial crop. The move towards crop diversification often occurred in reaction to restraints imposed by federal governmental policies.

Continuing the goals established in the s of attempting to prevent the accumulation of price-depressing surpluses and to provide stable incomes, such instruments as acreage allotments and marketing quotas remained in use, while such other approaches as set-aside or diversion programs were tried as a means of maintaining control over the production of the basic commodities grown in Texas-wheat, feed grains, cotton, rice, and peanuts.

Further long-term limitation efforts included the Soil Bank program of , the Cropland Adjustment Program, and the Conservation Reserve Program in , by which cropland was removed from production and replaced with grasses or hay. The rewards for participating in such programs came in the form of income or price-support policies that varied from benefit payments for idling acreage to nonrecourse loans for commodities placed in storage. In the s those who cooperated became eligible to receive disaster payments when emergency situations caused crop losses or deficiency payments for those farmers whose average cash receipts for cotton, wheat, corn, sorghum, and oats were less than the target price that political authorities deemed acceptable.

Though the governmental restriction programs applied primarily to crop production, the livestock industry maintained a significant role in Texas agriculture, for cash receipts from livestock and livestock products exceeded crop sales continuously after In a state where two-thirds of the space was pastureland, beef-cattle enterprises, which normally furnished more income than any other agricultural endeavor, operated in every Texas county.

On farms and ranches the basic cow-calf operations, including the breeding of registered animals, prevailed. Though a portion of the calves were maintained on the pastureland, others were either sent to graze on winter wheat from late fall to late winter or went directly or indirectly to feedlots for fattening before slaughter.

Another aspect of cattle production, dairying, grew as urbanization spread in the state. With 95 percent of the milk produced east of a line from Wichita Falls to Corpus Christi, large dairy farms often consisted of herds in excess of cows, which gave an average of 15, pounds of milk per animal annually.

Sheep and goat ranching, with its wool and mohair harvest, continued to be centered on the Edwards Plateau. Along with raising hogs for pork, poultry operations provided income through the sale of eggs and broilers; Angelina and Camp counties in East Texas and Gonzales County in south central Texas were the leading producers. With the convergence of technological, scientific, economic, and political factors after World War II, large commercial farms and ranches became dominant in the Texas agricultural system.

As their operators acquired sophisticated machines that allowed them to handle more acreage with less labor, began to use chemicals and improved seed varieties that enhanced their crop productivity, and introduced livestock and poultry breeding techniques to develop more marketable goods, large numbers of poorly capitalized marginal farmers found the costs beyond their capability and left the profession.

Consequently, between and the farm population fell from 1. Though approximately three-fourths of the farms in the state were smaller than acres by , 80 percent of the commodity sales came from 8. Four areas-the High Plains, the lower Rio Grande valley, the upper Coastal Prairie, and the Blackland Prairies-had become the primary centers for large commercial units by the s. With the exception of the Blackland Prairies, where diversified dry-land stock farms were prevalent, the other regions included heavily capitalized operations with extensive irrigated acreage.

In the upper coastal region of Southeast Texas, rice and soybeans generated the most income. The mild winters of the lower Rio Grande valley allowed for a great variety of produce, ranging from citrus fruits and vegetables to cotton, grain sorghum, and corn. On the northern High Plains, where large farms averaged more than 2, acres, wheat, grain sorghum, and corn were raised in fields adjacent to mammoth cattle feedlots.

A more intensive cropping system in the southern High Plains counties made the area the state's leader in cotton production. In most of the remaining farm areas of the state, stock farming, which usually combined cattle raising and dry-land raising of wheat, sorghum, or cotton, continued, with variations dependent upon the land and climate. However, major changes did occur in some regions such as East Texas, where the expense of modernization and federal controls upon production caused a shift from small cotton farms to an emphasis upon cattle raising, with hay as the primary crop.

Yet, whether they produced livestock, raised crops, or operated stock farms, Texas agriculturalists found themselves a part of an infrastructure that influenced their actions and decisions. Increasingly, loan officers at such lending institutions as commercial banks, federal land banks, production credit associations, and insurance companies offered advice on planning. Oftentimes, the ability of an array of agribusinessmen from private enterprises or cooperatives to supply such goods and services as implements, seeds, fertilizers, chemicals, fuel, repair facilities, and other necessities affected their decision making.

In addition, representatives from federal agencies supervised their compliance with production programs or counseled them on conserving their land. Information gathered by researchers at federal and state agricultural experiment stations, universities, or private firms became available through county agents, farm magazines, radio and television broadcasters, and other sources.

Whether farmers raised rice, corn, wheat, cotton, grain sorghum, fruits, livestock, or other commodities, they usually belonged to a general organization such as the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Farmers Union, or the American Agriculture Movement, and perhaps to more than one commodity association; both the general organizations and the commodity associations became the farmers' instruments for promoting their interests in political arenas or in marketing their produce.

Marketing also underwent change. Instead of sending their crops and livestock to distant terminal points on railroads, farmers and ranchers profited from the introduction of motor vehicles, particularly trucks, in the s and the subsequent improvement in the roadways, which gave growers more options for delivering their produce directly to nearby gins, elevators, packing sheds, or livestock auctions for sale through cooperatives or to private buyers.

Some producers engaged in futures trading through commercial brokers as a hedge against possible price declines. Though much of the produce went to fresh fruit and vegetable markets or cottonseed mills, flour mills, textile mills, meat-packing plants, canneries, or other processors both within the state and outside, the Texas Gulf ports as well as those on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts became the debarkation points for Texas crops sent to all areas of the world.

As electricity became available through rural cooperatives, farmers began enjoying the same household conveniences as those who lived in the city. In addition, the construction of farm roads and improved roadways made areas beyond the immediate community more accessible. Besides virtually eliminating the small country stores, the roads made shopping at supermarkets in nearby towns easy; milk cows and laying hens disappeared from many farmsteads. As consolidation programs led to the closing of rural schools, children were bused to larger educational facilities, which usually offered access to more programs than such groups as 4-H Clubs or Future Farmers of America.

From the towns young men and women increasingly went to colleges and universities, either to pursue careers in urban areas or to return to their home communities trained in agricultural practices. Though some farmers chose to live in nearby towns and commute to their farms, by the s a majority of Texans residing on farms earned their principal income elsewhere. Along with the advent of radio and television, which both entertained and kept farmers aware of world events and the latest crop and livestock market quotations, such devices as two-way radios and computers became helpful management tools, particularly at large commercial operations.

Even as changes came in the Texas agricultural system, several challenges existed with which farmers and livestock producers had to deal. Regardless of where farming and ranching occurred, environmental or climatic problems had always arisen. In some years there was little rain and in others too much. Sometimes crops suffered when diseases and insects struck. Though the application of scientific and technological practices could ameliorate some of these difficulties, plains farmers felt a sense of hopelessness when their crops were destroyed by hail, for instance; citrus growers in the lower Rio Grande valley saw their orange and grapefruit orchards frozen on four occasions between and In addition, the fear of being caught on the wrong side of the cost-price squeeze was ever present.

As commercial operators became dependent upon agribusiness suppliers, any variations in costs or slippage in prices oftentimes placed them in jeopardy.

For example, the rapid rise in natural gas prices during the s forced both Upland and Pima irrigated cotton producers in Pecos and Reeves counties to reduce their acreage by two-thirds. Besides the costs, irrigation farmers on the High Plains faced the threatened depletion of the Ogallala Aquifer, which had made the region one of the most prolific in the state. Despite such remedial efforts as the organization of water-conservation districts, the return of substantial watered acreage to dry land, the institution of minimum tillage techniques, and the installation of more efficient equipment such as the center pivot sprinkler or the low-energy pressure-application systems, the concern remained.

Furthermore, though farmers and ranchers recognized that both national and international incidents could influence their livelihood, an element of insecurity existed when political leaders assumed the authority to render decisions affecting agriculture. Yet even with these and other issues, Texas agriculture remained a vital industry both in the state and the nation at the end of the twentieth century.

By the s crop and livestock cash receipts continued to grow. Donna A. Paul H. Henry C. Dethloff and Irvin M. May, Jr. Donald E. Richard G. Lowe and Randolph B. Janet M. Neugebauer, ed. William N. Stokes, Jr. The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style , 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.