When you live in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) you never know what will be planted next. They rotate crops around here like magicians. Except for the citrus crops, oranges and grapefruit, which remain the same, the other fields are a flurry of activity. The area, which consists of 4 Texas counties and the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, is irrigated by the Rio Grande River (I know that is redundant.) In Mexico, the river is known as the Rio Bravo del Norte.
Most of the crops are vegetables. Large areas are devoted to various types of melons, carrots, potatoes, 1015 onions, cabbage, lettuce, sugar cane, etc. More than 40 different crops are grown here. You name it, they grow it.
We’re not normally here in August, but this year we were, and were surprised to see large areas of cotton growth. We’re used to seeing cotton in west Texas, where we’ve seen the harvest take place in December and January. Seeing the harvest take place in August seemed quite unusual.
Picking sure isn’t like in the old days where Tinka’s father brought in migrants to pick his crops by hand. Today a combine takes the place of the pickers.
They bring the whole cotton harvesting and baling operation into the field.
Then the apparatus spits out the huge bales that will be delivered to the gin later. (Click photo to enlarge)
When the Winter Texans appear in the valley between October and the end of the year, evidence of the cotton crop has been replaced by carrots, onions, or some other crop.
Yes, but where is the cotton picking (HA) birthday girl. I tried not to mention it.
It is interesting to note that the baling takes place in the field. I was wondering how so much cotton could be grown when all the gins were lying closed and rusting.