Howdy-
My name is Bubba Lamolinare. I am the Agriculture and Natural Resources Extension Agent for Yoakum County. I wanted to introduce myself and my blog series. In this blog I will explore the history of specialty crop production in Yoakum County.
Yoakum County has a rich heritage of growing a variety of specialty crops such as peppers, gourds, pumpkins, grapes and watermelon. In the past, water for irrigation was much more plentiful, and that allowed area producers to grow many different crops. Pepper production was a major crop for our county. Unfortunately as water became less available for irrigation we lost some of our diversified crop production. Currently there are few to no peppers grown in Yoakum County. Decorative gourds, pumpkins, grapes and watermelon are still grown in our county. Water available for irrigation is an on going concern and issue for our local producers. Ground water has been reduced through lengthy droughts over the past decade. Producers that continue to grow specialty crops can attribute part of their success to their ability to utilize irrigation efficiently. Our local growers are on the forefront of water conservation.
In my blog I will highlight some of the agricultural practices that our local growers engage in over the course of a growing season. I hope this will bring an appreciation of the hard work of Yoakum County producers. I will also touch on issues such as pre-plant considerations, variety selection, planting, irrigation, weed management and harvesting.
I hope you check back to learn more about specialty crop production in our county.