‘A Double Hit’ ; Gasoline Prices Are High and Rainfall is Low

Pat Woods stood outside his Curry County farm’s workshop last week, looked up into the heavy gray skies and grinned as a light drizzle pelted the brim of his worn cap.

“We’ll take all this we can get,” said Woods, a dryland farmer whose family has been tilling the soil on the cap rock northeast of Clovis for the past 100 years.

“I guarantee you, a month ago, this was all brown” Woods said at he kicked at a lush patch of buffalo grass. “You can see what a little rain does in this country.”

Despite the arrival of seasonal rains three weeks ago, eastern New Mexico’s dryland farmers — those who rely on rainfall rather than irrigation — are still “playing catch up” with the rain gauge, Woods said.

Just feet away from the green carpet of wet grass surrounding Woods’ house sits his latest challenge — a tank of diesel fuel that cost nearly twice as much to fill this year as it did a year ago.

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