Land Stewardship & Rural Property

After the Water Recedes: What This Year’s Floods Left Behind on Texas Farms and Ranches

A year after the 2025 Hill Country floods, Texas agricultural land is once again picking up the pieces — and the damage this time is spread across a much wider stretch of the state.

A Different Kind of Flood Than Last Year

In July 2025, the Hill Country experienced one of the deadliest flash floods in Texas history, concentrated largely in the Guadalupe River headwaters around Kerr County. This July, almost to the day one year later, the region flooded again — but the pattern was different.

Rather than one violent surge in a single watershed, this year’s rain came in multiple rounds over several days, spreading across a much broader stretch of Central and South Texas and affecting multiple river basins at once. The heaviest totals landed west of San Antonio in Uvalde County, where preliminary National Weather Service data put rainfall as high as 28 inches over just a few days. Kerr, Real, and Guadalupe counties each saw more than 20 inches as well.

Hydrologists have described this year’s event as more of a “rolling” flood — rising and falling in waves across different rivers — compared to last year’s single, sudden surge. That difference, along with warning sirens installed in Kerr County after the 2025 tragedy, is credited with a far lower loss of life this time. It did not, however, spare rural land from serious damage.

For those of us who work in Texas ranch and farm real estate, the headlines move on quickly. The recovery on the ground doesn’t. Landowners across the affected counties are now facing weeks of cleanup and, in many cases, a full season of lost income before things are back to where they were — a reminder that flood exposure is worth weighing carefully alongside ranch pricing strategy when buying or selling in these counties.

Fences: The First Thing Everyone Notices, and the Hardest to Fix

Of everything on this list, fence damage is the one landowners feel first. Fast-moving water doesn’t just knock a few posts loose — it can take out entire runs of boundary and interior fence, wrapping wire around trees and debris hundreds of yards downstream from where it started.

Hay: A Season’s Work Underwater

For a lot of operations, hay is the margin between profit and loss for the year, and this kind of flooding hits it two ways:

• Direct loss. Cut hay sitting in the field, whether baled or still on the ground waiting to be baled, is generally a total loss once it’s been submerged or soaked through for an extended period. It molds, loses nutritional value, and in many cases becomes unsafe to feed at all. Standing hay meadows that were underwater for days may also see stand damage that affects the next cutting, not just this one.
• Regional supply pressure. When a flood event covers this many counties at once, it doesn’t just wipe out one operation’s hay — it tightens supply across the whole area right as demand for replacement hay is climbing. Ranchers who didn’t lose their own hay may still feel it through higher prices later this year.

If you’re in a position to help a neighboring operation bridge the gap, or need to source replacement hay yourself, your county AgriLife Extension office is usually the fastest way to find what’s available regionally.

If you carry crop or hay insurance through USDA’s Risk Management Agency, document losses with photos and, where possible, weight or bale-count estimates before the hay is cleared or destroyed — adjusters generally need to see the damage, not just hear about it after the fact.

Crops: Standing Water, Silt, and Lost Planting Windows

Row crop and field crop damage from this kind of event comes from more than the water itself. Prolonged standing water suffocates root systems even in crops that can typically tolerate a hard rain, and the silt and debris left behind when the water recedes can bury young plants outright or change the composition of the topsoil in ways that affect the rest of the growing season.

Timing matters as much as the damage itself. Depending on what was in the ground and where in the growing cycle it sat, this flood may have simply cost a few weeks, or it may have closed the planting window entirely for the year on that acreage. For operations with federal crop insurance, a prevented planting or replant claim needs to be filed within specific windows set by the policy — don’t wait to call your agent if replanting is even a possibility. The USDA Farm Service Agency can also confirm deadlines tied to any disaster declaration.

Once fields have drained enough to walk, a soil test is worth the time before replanting. Floodwater can deposit contaminants from upstream — fuel, chemicals, or livestock waste carried down from other properties — and silt deposits can also shift soil pH and nutrient levels enough to warrant an adjusted fertilizer plan.

Land and Water Systems: What’s Under the Surface

Beyond fences, hay, and crops, this kind of prolonged flooding leaves damage that’s easy to miss in the first few weeks:

• Water wells near flooded rivers or low-lying pasture should be tested before use, since floodwater can introduce bacteria into a well casing that isn’t sealed properly.
• Septic and OSSF systems on rural properties can also be compromised by saturated drain fields.
• Low-water crossings that were reshaped or undercut by the current may not be safe to drive even after the water is gone.
• Creek and river frontage can erode enough to shift property boundaries in a practical sense, even if the surveyed line hasn’t moved — worth a walk of the fence and creek line together once it’s safe to do so.

If you’re evaluating a property in one of these counties before or after this event, it’s also worth reviewing how farm and ranch financing lenders treat flood-affected acreage — some require updated surveys or floodplain documentation before closing.

Where to Start This Week

If your land was in the path of this flood, here’s the order of operations we’d recommend:

1. Document everything before you clear anything
2. Get livestock accounted for and temporarily contained
3. Call your insurance agent and, if applicable, your USDA Farm Service Agency office
4. Hold off on major replanting or rebuilding decisions until you’ve had a chance to walk the full property in daylight

A disaster declaration covering a number of the hardest-hit counties has been reported, which may open the door to additional federal assistance through FEMA — your county FSA office is the right first call to understand what’s actually available versus what’s still pending approval. For questions on how your existing farm and ranch policy handles this kind of claim, the Texas Department of Insurance also maintains consumer guidance on flood-related claims.

And if flooding wasn’t the only thing on your radar this season, our New World screwworm landowner guide covers another emerging risk worth monitoring on livestock operations right now.