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February 16, 2001

Poultry producers, farmers
feel effects of high gas prices

East Texas poultry producers were totally unprepared for the spike in natural gas prices reflected in their poultry house heating bills for the month of December.

Nacogdoches County broiler operator Thomas Riggins, whose bill jumped from $3,900 to $12,000 in one month, said he doesn't know how he's going to pay it.

"It's scary. We turned the gas off. We don't know what to do," Riggins, who raises about 500,000 chickens annually for Tyson Foods, said in January. "The company allows a fuel allowance, but it won't come close to this."

Riggins was completing a three-week cycle of broiler chicks and contemplating whether or not he should attempt a batch in February. Normal procedure is to keep houses between 80-85 degrees for chicks. He said with the heat off, the birds require more feed to create their own energy.

"If we'd known it (gas) was going to cost this much, we wouldn't have raised this winter batch of chickens. We'll probably be $12,000 in the hole. I've got friends in worse shape. One has nine chicken houses and a $16,000 gas bill. We're faced with the choice of paying the bank or the gas company," said Riggins. "It's probably going to put some people out of business, if it don't put a bunch."

Billy Bob Brown, a Carson County producer who grows irrigated wheat, corn, grain sorghum, soybean and seed grass, has watched natural gas rise from $2.79 to $7.41 a thousand.

"Every three months, we get a price increase from our supplier. If I pumped like I usually do, the cost would have jumped from $53,000 to $141,000. With commodity prices as they are now, we can't stand it," the Panhandle farmer said.

Brown said he has no intentions of planting any corn this year and will probably stick with specialty crops, like sideoats gramma grown for a seed company.

"Right now, we're trying to figure out what we can do. We may possibly have to revert some acres back to dryland. We're waiting to see what natural gas is going to do," he said. "It really makes it hard to plan."

Brown said county officials were concerned about the tax base if irrigated land reverts back to dryland, and how they will make up tax revenue shortfalls.

"We've just got one hell of a challenge, but the guys in the business here are survivors and they're tough. We'll meet the challenge. We'll work together and figure something out," he said.