The images of broken water pipes and people lining up to get fresh water filled the airwaves and newspapers as residents of the Southwest worked to dig themselves out of some of the coldest weather on record. But what about the farms and ranches hit by that same weather?

Temperatures dropped into the single digits during the second week of February and yet a week later, they rose back into the 70s. We wanted to get a closer look, so we turned to Shelley Huguley, Southwest Farm Press, for her insight, and while she found plenty of bad news, there was one silver lining.

Photo: Shelley Huguley