Some much-needed rain fell for a few minutes in Williamson County Tuesday, but it may not be enough.
Drought conditions have remained a constant concern for farmers in the area, but even if the rain keeps coming, it could be too little, too late for fall crops.
Archie Abrameit walked through his brown, dried-up pasture in Thrall Tuesday afternoon, wishing a few more downpours, like the one that came that morning, would be enough to enrich his land.
"We'll take every drop we get, but we were hoping maybe we'd get an inch-and-a-half," Abrameit said.
Abrameit said this is the worst drought he's seen in four or five years.
Fewer than two inches of rain have fallen in the Central Texas
area since Sept. 1, a time which typically averages 4 - 5 inches.
"For our fall crops, it's probably too little too late. Wheat
should be up and growing now," Abrameit said. "We probably can still get it in. The damage has been done for our spring crops with the shortage of rain."
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Drought Conditions
As News 8's Karina Kling reports, one farmer says even a steady rainfall, could be "too little, too late" for fall crops.
 
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Normally all of Abrameit's cows could be found grazing the pasture, but because of the lack of rain, he's had to do a lot of supplemental feeding.
"Anytime you have to feed them out of a sack instead of pasture and grass, it's a lot more expensive," he said.
Grass is just one expense of many, during current drought conditions.
"You have your input costs regardless of what you produce, and
if you don't have the rainfall to go along with it in a dryland setting, it can cause for some red ink at the end of the year," he said.
The effects of the drought hurt more than the farmers, but eventually trickle-down to consumers.
Abrameit said irrigation in the Central Texas area is too expensive and water quality is an issue. So as a dryland farmer, if he wants to produce a substantial spring crop, he's going to need the clouds to bring a lot more of that wet stuff his way.
