The spring harvest is supposed to be a money-maker for farmers in North Texas.
But rain set harvest schedules way back, and in some cases it kept farmers from even getting seeds into the ground.
Clint Rutledge plants wheat in the fall. By now, his harvest is normally almost finished. This year, flooding kept him out of the fields until Thursday.
"When you're dealing with mud it just prolongs the harvest a lot longer. It's hard on the equipment," he said.
The late harvest means the quality of the wheat won't be great and won't sell for as much as normal.
But Rutledge feels fortunate to have any yield at all.
Weeks of rain this spring kept him from planting corn altogether. Hay used to feed hundreds of head cattle didn't make it into the ground either.
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"I imagine we'll lose $50,000 or so," Rutledge said.
"It's been bittersweet,” said Rick Maxwell, the Collin County agriculture extension agent.
Maxwell said the rain has helped by filling reservoirs but has also made harvesting harder for farmers across North Texas. He said farmers will have to file insurance claims to try to recoup some of their losses.
"I want people to know that we still have a lot of farming families here in Collin County, and, you know, that's their livelihood," Maxwell said.
It's a livelihood that's about to take a bit hit for Rutledge.
"That's the risk that we farmers take. It's mother nature. She always wins," Rutledge said.
