Post Scripts: Texas is Big!

You’re not in Texas very long until a Texan reminds you just how big Texas is – and how crippled the United States would be if it were not part of it. I can understand the natives’ pride in their own state, just as Kathy and I are of Missouri, but Texans can overdo it as seen in the signs they have along the highways: "Don’t mess with Texas." I told a lady that the other day and she became upset.

Texas is an outstanding state but their greatest treasure is certainly not found in their politicians, their muddled, inadequate highways, or their boastfulness. No indeed. The treasure in Texas is their agriculture. That’s right, treasures from the world of agriculture are seen in every direction.—from the cotton in your blue jeans to the peanuts in your peanut butter to the wood in the pencil you may be holding.

Texas accounts for seven percent of the total agriculture income and accounts for $80 billion a year to the state’s economy. Each Texas farmer grows enough food and fiber for 128 people – 94 percent in the United States and 33 percent overseas. Seventeen percent of the total U.S. workforce, more than 24 million Americans produce, process, sell and trade the nation’s food and fiber.

Texas is one of the leading exporters of agricultural commodities. Texas’ top agricultural commodities include cotton and cottonseed; live animals and meat, feed grains and products, peanuts and products, hides and skins, feeds and fodder, tree nuts and wheat. Texas produced 4.84 billion pounds of red meat last year. There are more head of livestock – cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, poultry and horses – than there are people in Texas.

Texas ranks seventh in milk production, producing more than 5.7 million pounds valued at over $786 million. Major dairy products here are ice cream, condensed, evaporated and dry milk, creamery butter and cheese. There are about 345,000 head of dairy cows in 2,500 dairies in the state. The average cow eats about 95 pounds of feed a day and drinks about 30 gallons (a bathtub full) of water a day. The average cow produces about 25 pounds of milk in one milking and about 25,000 pounds of milk per year.

A rancher told me (hope he wasn’t putting me on) cows spend an average of six hours eating and eight hours chewing cud. Texas is third in the U.S. in ice cream production with 60.3 million gallons. Texas grows more spinach for processing than any other state –but not for me! Texas ranks first in the U.S. in the number of farms and ranches with 227,00 as well as in farmland with 130 million acres. Texas also ranks first with the number of cattle operations with 151,000 in 2001.

The Lone Star state ranks first in the number of cattle and calves – 13.6 million head, or 14 percent of the U.S. total. The Panhandle of Texas accounts for 25 percent of America’s beef. I can also tell you first-hand that native Texans are not bashful about spreading the good news about their big state. At risk of being way-laid and hung from a tree limb, I will also tell you Texans can be windy and obnoxious at times, but when cornered can quickly change the subject to John Wayne or The Alamo.

It is then I kick in the Good News about Missouri and Daviess County and its mostly wonderful citizens, fine cattle, and its diverse population of Amish, Mormons and, of course, the rest of us.