Crawfish

Still no rain here – today’s forecast has a probability of 20% this morning, increasing to a whopping 40% by late evening, the best chance we’ve had in months.

The one thing we do know for sure is that the drought is already hitting the pocketbook in ways you might not have considered.  For example, the price of crawfish is going up.

Many of the rice farmers between here and the Louisiana border raise crawfish in their fields in the years that they don’t plant rice, and some of them have converted completely to raising ditch-bugs as their primary cash crop.  Regulations have made it increasingly difficult and expensive to pump water to flood the fields, so the lack of rain has hit them hard.

A story from a local TV station last night said:

The drought conditions in southeast Texas are prompting crawfish farmers to warn of higher prices over the next few months.

"The crawfish are running probably at least 50 cents a pound higher than they normally do," said Shane Cheshon, the co-owner of Texas Crawdaddy’s, where live purged crawfish was selling at $2.45 a pound on Sunday.

He said crawfish prices typically drop slightly after Easter and Mother’s Day as demand falls. But this year, the drought conditions are threatening to keep them high.

To explain why, Cheshon pointed to his nearby crawfish field.

"Normally the water level would be way up here where my foot's at,” he said, pointing at the ground. “But just in the last two weeks, the water's already receded."

He added that the traps were having a tough time capturing the usual amount of crawfish so he’s had to import more from Louisiana. Those farmers in Lousiana are also having to work harder to pump water in their fields because of the dry conditions, he said.

"I don't think you're going to see crawfish prices any lower than they are right now for the rest of the year," Cheshon said.