Between one-third and two-thirds of Texas farmers do not own the mineral rights under the land they farm, according to Darren Hudson, an agricultural economist at Texas Tech University.

“I know some farmers who have gotten filthy rich off the boom, but most of them don’t,” Mr. Hudson said. “If they don’t own the mineral rights, it’s more of an inconvenience.”

Debbra Mamula, executive vice president of the Texas Oil and Gas Association, said the energy development in Glasscock County has produced tangible benefits, most noticeably, oil and gas operators pay the bulk of property taxes.

Judge Halfmann agreed that the drilling boom has been great for her county’s revenue, but said most of that additional money is being used to repair roads damaged by oil field truck activity. Overall, the gains from drilling are not viewed as worth the drawbacks in a county long dominated by cotton farming.

For every new oil or gas well, drilling firms take over a pad site of three to five acres and construct pathways — often through cropland — to a nearby road. All of that land will probably never be suitable for fertile farming again, said Norman Garza, associate legislative director with the Texas Farm Bureau. (The Texas Farm Bureau is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune.)

Drilling companies often pay landowners to cover “damages” for a well. Several cotton farmers told The Tribune that a typical payment for a well site was about $10,000, an amount they were told was nonnegotiable, as state law did not require any payment to the surface owner.

“You’re kind of at the mercy of what they want to pay,” said Dennis Fuchs, a cotton farmer whose 640-acre piece of farmland has 16 wells.