Bee County farmers say last weekend’s rain showers will help their crops reach sunlight but may not be enough to get them to market.

Some farmers said the fast-moving thunderstorms may have done as much harm as good because they will have to spend additional money on fertilizer and fuel for crops that may not make it to harvest without more rainfall.

Arturo Gaitan, a third-generation farmer in the southern portion of Bee County, says his fields received one inch or just over one inch of rain last weekend.

He said the rain was enough to “bring up a crop, but isn’t enough to sustain it.”

“We’ll get a crop to come up but we’ll need more rain if we want to have something to harvest,” he said.

Gaitan, who farms in the Clareville area, plans to plant grain and cotton this year.

“Five or six inches of rain would be good but any good soaker will do.”

Rain or not, he plans to put a crop in the ground if only to receive crop insurance.

“The question is, how much diesel will we use? Will we fertilize or not? We can’t spend more money than we’ll receive in crop insurance.”

Bee County is in an extreme drought, according to the Texas Forestry Service.

The county presently ranks between 700 and 800 on the Keetch-Byrum Drought Index, which measures moisture in the soil, precipitation in the air and temperature.

The drought index ranges from 0 to 800, where a drought index of 0 represents no moisture depletion, and an index of 800 represents absolutely dry conditions.

Matt Huie, who raises corn, milo and cotton in central Bee County, said the one-inch downfall last weekend may cause more harm to farmers than good.

That’s because farmers who lose their crop before it germinates will receive 65 percent of their crop insurance. But if the crop breaks ground, crop insurance compels farmers to “do what’s right” to get the plants to market, he said.

That means farmers may have to fertilize and dust for pests, which means they will spend money on chemicals, fuel and other costs.

That’s great if the crop survives and thrives until harvest time, Huie explains, but if the crop dies in the field because of a lack of rain then those additional expenses will absorb what little farmers receive from crop insurance.

Crop insurance pays farmers about 65 percent for “an average crop,” he explained. “So we’re already not going to get all of the money we would have gotten if we had a good crop and we’re not going to get all the money we would have gotten if we had just an average crop. If we have to fertilize and spray for pests, then we’re not even going to get all of the 65 percent from crop insurance.”

The way things look right now, Huie expects a season similar to 2006 when the drought kept seeds from germinating.

“We’ll put a crop in the ground. That’s what we do,” he said. “But without more rain I don’t expect much success.”

Troy Berthold, who farms land just south of U.S. Highway 59 East, is equally pessimistic about getting a crop out of the ground this year.

“It’s just bad,” he said. “Four out of five years it’s been really bad. We had an inch of rain,” he said of the wet weather last weekend. “It’s enough to bring it up.”

But if more rain does not fall soon, the seed he is planting this week has no chance of making it to maturity.

“It’s drying fast. You don’t know what to do.”

The temptation is to fertilize and try to make a crop, he said, but each time a farmer starts his tractor, loads fertilizer and heads to the fields he is spending money on what might end up being another losing proposition.

“We’re going to plant a lot of corn and hope we can make a crop,” Berthold said. He was into his third day of planting Thursday morning and looking at weather reports for next week that included the possibility of “scattered showers.”

The farmer said he is not hopeful.

“If we get another two or three rains,” he said with doubt in his voice.

“A drought makes you do things that aren’t ordinary and when you do stuff that’s not on schedule, you don’t know what to expect.”

“I don’t think it’ll live three weeks,” Berthold said of the crop even if it does come up this year. “I guess that’s what happened back in the ’50s. It’s fixing to get real hot,” he said of the coming weather pattern.

Gaitan said the drought will only contribute to an already bad economy.

“It’s a domino effect. If farmers don’t make money we don’t have money to spend. If farmers don’t have money to spend, we can’t buy anything and the economy takes another hit. It’s a chain reaction.”