Thursday, June 19, 1997

Boll Weevil program needs money and dry fields for real work

By J.T. SMITH / Abilene Reporter-News

If it can get some money - and the creeks don't rise - the reborn Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Program will be doing some real field work soon in some area counties.

"Right now - we're not doing much of anything (in the field)," Frank Myers said this week.

The executive director of the Texas Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation in Abilene said the reasons are two.

"One, we haven't gotten all of our loans approved," Myers said. "And of course, the roads and fields are extremely muddy after so many days of heavy rains in the area."

There's not much the boll weevil warriors or anyone can do about the weather. But some officials of the program left for Austin on Tuesday to meet with Farm Credit Bank of Texas officials regarding the funding for the program.

Those going to Austin this week included Woody Anderson of Colorado City, TBWEF board chairman, and Osama El-Lissy of the Abilene state headquarters office.

Myers said that in the past, the Farm Credit Bank had provided all the loans for the funding to operate the program.

But this time around, the Foundation is seeking to borrow the money from both the Farm Credit Bank and the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA).

Late Friday evening, Myers was notified by his TBWEF chief financial officer that the USDA-FSA had committed to loan the program $25 million to get it rolling again.

"I haven't actually seen that (commitment) in writing, yet," Myers said Tuesday. "But that was what I was told."

Meanwhile, boll weevil officials are meeting with the Farm Credit Bank officials in Austin this week to negotiate funding from its lending system.

"Merging the loans from FSA and the Farm Credit Bank has two advantages," Myers said. "One, it will save us lots of money through interest rates. And two, Farm Credit won't be shouldering all of the loan."

In the past, the farmer-owned Farm Credit Bank of Texas and seven of its Production Credit Associations (PCAs) provided $37 million in financing to the Texas weevil program.

On April 30, the Texas Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision declared the eradication program was unconstitutional. The high court said the Texas Legislature never had the authority to grant broad powers to a private entity in the TBWEF.

Money to repay the Farm Credit Bank and PCAs comes from assessments of local cotton farmers that are collected by the Foundation. When the Supreme Court said the program was unconstitutional, the action left cotton farmers in limbo, and their lender holding the bag.

The Rolling Plains PCA of Stamford is owed $3,123,462. John S. Rike III, president of the Rolling Plains PCA, also was among those traveling to Austin this week to wrestle with the future financial picture of the beleagured program.

In pulling off what seemed to be a miracle to resurrect the program, the Texas Legislature speedily moved a bill through both the House and Senate during May, and Gov. George W. Bush signed the legislation into law on May 30 before the Legislature adjourned on June 2.

The new law placed the program under the direct supervision of Texas Agriculture Commissioner Rick Perry and his Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA). Putting the weevil program under TDA's jurisdiction was the Legislature's way of getting the eradication effort to satisfy constitutional muster.

Moving quickly, Perry came to Abilene June 3 and swore in newly appointed TBWEF board members. On that day, the weevil eradication effort was officially in business once again.

Well...sort of.

When and where weevil work will begin

Although in ceremonial way the program was jump started with the Abilene swearing in of board members - the matter of funding, muddy conditions, and different zones makes the timetable for work uncertain at this point.

That also leaves many field workers - who had been furloughed after the Supreme Court decision - still in limbo as program funding is being secured.

Realistically, Myers acknowledges that it's just "too late" to expect the program to begin any spraying for weevils in the Rolling Plains Central (RPC) zone - an area roughly north of Abilene - during this current growing season.

Myers says the scenario for the 19-county RPC zone more likely will be a fall diapause spray before the boll weevils can go safely into their winter hibernation.

Meanwhile, the Southern Rolling Plains (SRP) zone, which runs from extreme southern Taylor County and on to the San Angelo area, will likely see spraying resume there during the summer months.

The smaller SRP zone is far along in its eradication work and already has reduced weevil numbers dramatically. Pesticide use has been cut in half in that zone, and weevil populations have been reduced by 98 percent. Now moving into its third year of eradication work, the SRP zone has some 4,267 weevil traps scattered across all or parts of nine counties in the SRP zone.

Farmers in 19 counties south of Lubbock will vote on Aug. 1 on joining the eradication effort.

Cotton growers in the South Texas/Winter Garden zone will vote on or before Oct. 20 on whether to continue the ongoing weevil eradication program there.

Commissioner Perry says Katie Dickie of TDA will be the key link between the state's cotton growers and his department. Dickie is a native of Woodson in Throckmorton County.

It would be nice if all the June flooding had "drowned" some boll weevils to assist the eradication program.

But pesky weevils are said to almost always find themselves some makeshift raft when the waters rise - or, they just ride the wave.

"They float pretty well," said Emory P. Boring III, veteran Texas A&M entomologist. "Weevils can usually handle the water okay."

Right now, weevils are seeking cotton that is putting on squares. They are desperately "looking for a home" to survive. Those growers with any early cotton that is already fruiting should be on alert for weevils, Boring said.