Dry Side Dispatch • October 23rd • Todd Baughman

We are proud to bring you our local radio show, The Dry Side Dispatch. All past episodes of the radio show are available on the Sandhills Area Research Association You Tube channel. You can also listen live via the YouTube channel on Friday's at Noon.

The Dry Side Dispatch is a West Texas radio show and media project from the Sandhills Area Research Association broadcast live on KRFE 95.9 FM. Hosted by Tillery Timmons-Sims, Andy Timmons, and Dusty Timmons, the program focuses on regional agriculture, land conservation, hunting, oil and gas, and local news

This episode of Dry Side Dispatch is a wide-ranging conversation about how West Texas agriculture is adapting to limited water, higher input costs, and changing production practices. The group discusses cover crops and crop insurance, compares groundwater management in Texas and Kansas, and considers how dwindling Ogallala supplies are reshaping decisions about irrigation and land use. 

A major focus is cotton production, including research into later planting dates, NASA-assisted analysis of weather and freeze risk, lower-cost seed options, drought-adapted varieties, and precision technologies such as targeted spraying. The broader theme is finding production systems that remain economically viable with less water—potentially combining limited irrigation, dryland cotton, grass, and livestock rather than relying on traditional high-input farming models. 

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Episode 118: Life Depends on Rivers: Conservation, Water Policy, and Working Together in the Southwest