Deaf Smith County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Deaf Smith County lies within the Texas High Plains / Panhandle and the High Plains — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Deaf Smith County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Deaf Smith County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Deaf Smith County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Deaf Smith County — the short answer
Deaf Smith County, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 958K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 958K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Deaf Smith County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deaf Smith County's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Deaf Smith County
Across a year, Deaf Smith County accumulates about 3,799 growing degree days above 50°F, about 2,025 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 3 of Texas’s 254 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 2,462 hours below 45°F, 1,367 more than the Texas middle of 1,095. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Deaf Smith County
Across Deaf Smith County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Pullman, Pep, and Olton are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.3–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
68%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Deaf Smith County
The USDA soil survey maps 97% of Deaf Smith County as well drained — but another 3% drains differently: 2% moderately well drained, 1% poorly drained.
Pullman is the most extensive named soil at 51% of mapped acres, then Pep (18%) and Olton (7%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Deaf Smith County
Each reading below is measured for Deaf Smith County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Deaf Smith County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Deaf Smith County runs about pH 7.3–7.9, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredDeaf Smith County runs about 207 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDeaf Smith County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Deaf Smith County is in
Deaf Smith County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — High Plains (95%) and Southwestern Tablelands (5%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Deaf Smith County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Deaf Smith County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 207-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile.
Is it too late to plant in Deaf Smith County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What gets applied to farmland in Deaf Smith County
USGS estimates 173,127 lb of Glyphosate on Deaf Smith County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (95,935 lb) and Atrazine (94,518 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Deaf Smith County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Deaf Smith County — 231 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Deaf Smith County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Deaf Smith County
Closest first, across Deaf Smith County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COBALT CATTLE HEREFORDCAFO · 1.7 mi
- HEREFORD MUNICIPAL WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 6.0 mi
- D & J DAIRYCAFO · 6.3 mi
- CNOSSEN DAIRY RNGCAFO · 6.7 mi
- MCCLAIN FEEDYARDCAFO · 7.4 mi
- F2 FEEDYARDCAFO · 7.4 mi
- FRIONA 1057CAFO · 7.4 mi
- EDDIE SCHAAP DAIRYCAFO · 7.8 mi
- BARRETT CROFOOT WESTCAFO · 8.3 mi
- BARRETT & CROFOOT WESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.3 mi
- GOLD STAR DAIRYCAFO · 9.1 mi
- GREAT PLAINS FEEDERS ICAFO · 9.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deaf Smith County's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Deaf Smith County.
Total Sites
231
across Deaf Smith County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Deaf Smith County
Severity Distribution
across Deaf Smith County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Deaf Smith County, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 66 sites across Deaf Smith County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Deaf Smith County
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deaf Smith County average
Your land is one point inside Deaf Smith County
Everything above resolves to Deaf Smith County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 958K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at county scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better county average.
Your Lot vs the Deaf Smith County Average
Deaf Smith County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Deaf Smith County
- ●One soil character for all of Deaf Smith County
- ●Frost dates read at Deaf Smith County's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deaf Smith County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Deaf Smith County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deaf Smith County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deaf Smith County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deaf Smith County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deaf Smith County average
How we know this about Deaf Smith County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Deaf Smith County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Deaf Smith County
When does frost risk typically end in Deaf Smith County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deaf Smith County typically lands around Apr 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 28.
How long is the growing season in Deaf Smith County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deaf Smith County sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 17, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deaf Smith County?
The federal record around Deaf Smith County is a meaningful one — 231 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (136), the nearest CAFO record about 1.7 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at Deaf Smith County's scale — its 7a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deaf Smith County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Texas's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Deaf Smith County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Deaf Smith County's own scale — its own ~207-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 231 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deaf Smith County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Deaf Smith County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Deaf Smith CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 231 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest CAFO record about 1.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Deaf Smith County's boundary and the 957,965 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Deaf Smith County spans, High Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Deaf Smith County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Deaf Smith County — the ~207 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deaf Smith County's 957,965 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 231 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Deaf Smith Countyread your own land →