Agriculture Offloading freshly harvested cotton into a module builder in Texas; previously built modules can be seen in the
background Texas is a productive agricultural state with the most farms both in number and acreage in the United States. Texas leads the nation in number of cattle, usually exceeding 16 million head. The sprawling 320,000 deeded acre (1,200 km) La Escalera Ranch, located 20 miles (32 km) south of Fort Stockton, Texas, is one of the largest cattle ranches in the Southwestern United States. The state also leads nationally in production of sheep and goat products. Texas is king of cotton leading the nation in cotton production, its leading crop and second-most-valuable farm product.[17] Texas is a leader in cereal crop production. The state is also a large producer of watermelons, grapefruits, and cantaloupes.[17] Aeronautics Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, the center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is in Houston. It is a leading hub for the Aeronautics industry. The National Space and Biomedical Research Institute is headquartered in Houston. The Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, located nearly equidistant from downtown Dallas and downtown Fort Worth, is the largest airport in the state, the second largest in the United States, and fourth largest in the world.[18] In terms of traffic, DFW is the busiest in the state, third busiest in the United States, and sixth busiest in the world.[citation needed] The airport serves 135 domestic destinations and 40 international. DFW is the largest and main hub for American Airlines, one of the world's largest in terms of total passengers-miles transported and passenger fleet size. Texas's second-largest air facility is Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH). Downtown Houston has the headquarters of Continental Airlines,[19][20] which has Bush Airport as its largest hub. IAH offers service to the most Mexican destinations of any U.S. airport. IAH currently ranks second among U.S. airports with scheduled non-stop domestic and international service. American Airlines, headquartered in Fort Worth, is the second largest airline in the United States by number of passengers carried domestically per year; the largest, Southwest Airlines, is based in Dallas. [edit] Defense [edit] Military facilities Texas is home to two of the United States Army's largest facilities (in terms of geographic size), Fort Hood in Central Texas near Killeen and Fort Bliss near El Paso. In addition, Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio is home to the Brooke Army Medical Center, one of the Army's major hospitals and its only burn facility. The United States Air Force operates several bases in the state Sheppard (Wichita Falls), Dyess (Abilene), Goodfellow (San Angelo), Laughlin (Del Rio), and Lackland and Randolph (San Antonio).
The United States Navy operates Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth (the former Carswell Air Force Base facility) as well as NAS Corpus Christi and NAS Kingsville. [edit] Defense contracting Texas (specifically Dallas and Houston) has a large number of defense contractors which creates sizable employment for the state. Two divisions of Lockheed Martin have their divisional headquarters in the DFW area Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth (where the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the largest Western fighter program,[21] is manufactured, as well as its successor, the F-35 Lightning II and the F-22 Raptor) and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Grand Prairie. Fort Worth is also the home of Bell Helicopter Textron, which manufactures several helicopters for the military, including the V-22 and the H-1, on which final assembly is performed in Amarillo. Furthermore, three major defense service contractors (DynCorp, AECOM, and Computer Sciences Corporation) have substantial operations in Fort Worth. Other major defense contractors with DFW presence include Boeing (Richardson), Rockwell Collins (Richardson), Vought Corporation (headquarters in Dallas; facilities in Dallas and Grand Prairie), Raytheon (plants in Garland, Dallas, and McKinney), L-3 Communications (plants in Arlington, Carrollton, and Greenville; also has a facility in Waco), BAE Systems (facility in Fort Worth), DRS Technologies (Dallas), EDS and Perot Systems (Plano), Alliant Techsystems (facility in Fort Worth), and Elbit Systems (facility and US headquarters in Fort Worth). The Defense Contract Audit Agency maintains its Central Region office in Irving. Outside the DFW area, KBR (the former Halliburton subsidiary) maintains its headquarters in Houston, while the Southwest Research Institute is located in San Antonio. BAE Systems also manufactures the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles at its facility in Sealy, Texas. [edit] Computer technology Texans seek social and technological developments for their state. The Austin area is often nicknamed "Silicon Hills". Dell's headquarters is located in the city's suburb, Round Rock. Dallas is the birthplace of the integrated circuit. The North Dallas area is called the "Telecom Corridor"[citation needed] for the area's high concentration of Information Technology companies such as Texas Instruments and EDS. In addition, Harris County-based Compaq,[22] was once the world's largest computer companies.[citation needed] After Compaq's merger with Hewlett-Packard, the new owner currently employs more employees in the Houston area, than anywhere else in the world.[citation needed] [edit] Energy Texans consume the most energy in the nation both in per capita and as a whole.[23] Since 2002, Texas has operated under a mostly deregulated electricity market (however, areas where electricity is provided by either a municipality or a utility cooperative are not always subject to deregulation). The known petroleum deposits of Texas are about 8 billion barrels (1.3109 m3), which makes up approximately one-third of the known U.S. supply. Texas has 4.6 billion barrels (730,000,000 m3) of proven crude oil reserves.[23] As wells are depleted in the eastern portions of the state, drilling in state has moved westward.[17]
Several of the major oil companies have headquarters in Texas, including ConocoPhillips, Marathon Oil (Houston), Exxon-Mobil (Irving), Tesoro, and Valero (San Antonio). Texas is a global leader in the energy industry and Houston is the energy capital of the world. Since 2003, Texas state officials have created various initiatives like the Texas Enterprise Fund and the Texas Emerging Technology Fund to develop the economy of Texas. Texas is a leader in alternative energy sources, producing the most wind power of any state,[24] as well as small solar powered efforts and the experimental installation of wave-powered generators. Texas also is home to many of the world's largest oilfield services firms including Halliburton, Schlumberger and Dresser. The state has a number of pipeline operators, such as El Paso and Dynegy, along with diversified energy firms such as TXU and Reliant Energy. [edit] Tourism Texas has a large tourism industry. The state tourism slogan is "Texas: It's like a whole other country." Tourists might enjoy San Antonio and El Paso's Hispanic culture, or Fort Worth western attractions. Galveston, Corpus Christi, and Padre Island are some of the popular Texas resort areas located on the Gulf of Mexico. Houston is Texas' leading convention city. Dallas is also one of the nation's leading convention cities. Professional and college sports are dominant in both Dallas and Houston. [edit] Entertainment Texas is a top filmmaking state. Austin is now one of the leading filmmaking locations in the country. The exteriors for the popular soap opera Dallas were filmed on Southfork Ranch, a location near Plano, Texas. From 1995 to 2004, more than $2.75 billion was spent in Texas for film and television production. The Texas Film Commission was founded for free services to filmmakers, from location research to traveling.[25] Also many Hollywood studios are relocating parts of their production divisions to the Austin and Dallas areas.[25] The media conglomerate Clear Channel Communications is based in San Antonio, Texas. Pi Studios and Timegate Studios are based in the Houston area. Blockbuster Video and Cinemark Theatres are also based in the Dallas Fort Worth area. [edit] Healthcare Healthcare is a growing industry in the state of Texas. The Texas Medical Center, located in southwest Houston, is the largest medical center in the world.[26][27] It is home to The University of Texas Health Science Center which trains medical students and residents and includes The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, a global leader of cancer research and treatment.[28] The medical complex also hosts a private medical college, The Baylor College of Medicine.[29] The University of Texas medical system[30] has additional branches in Dallas, San Antonio, and Galveston. The South Texas Medical Center in San Antonio with nearly 27,000 employees[31] has a $14.3 Billion economic impact on the state of Texas.[32] In addition to these facilities, the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Texas A&M Health Science Center,[citation needed], and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock and El Paso provide the state with a total of nine centers of medical research.
