State agriculture officials say farmers and ranchers in Texas have suffered $5.2 billion in losses since last November, due to the current drought.
That tops the previous record for agriculture losses set back in 2006.
The losses cut across most of the state's crops, including cotton, corn, wheat, sorghum and hay.
“That’s going to have a ripple effect through the economy," Texas AgriLife Extension Service economist David Anderson told KUT. "As you look at an industry that is roughly 9 or ten percent of the economy, that’s a sizeable proportion of the total economy. So I think we’ll all feel the effects from that agricultural impact over time.”
Anderson says the most obvious effect will be in higher prices at the grocery store.
Experts say the state needs at least 4.5 inches of rain over the next two months to avoid surpassing the record for the driest 12 consecutive months, set back in 1956.
