They do one thing and they do it well. That is the mantra preached by Mike Davis, who is co-owner of Tex-Mex Sales LLC, in Weslaco, TX, with his dad, Marvin Davis.

“We have onions from January through August,” said the younger Davis.

During that time period the company grows its own onions in Mexico, Texas and New Mexico. “We do source some onions in the fall (from August through December) for several of our customers, but they are not our own.”

Davis said the company works long hours and very hard during the first eight months of the year and tends to take it a bit easy during the last four months. This day in mid-August, Mike Davis was in his office in New Mexico, which is where he calls home during the summer months. His father did the New Mexico run for many years but now it’s the younger man’s turn.

Davis said there is some overlap between the three districts in an effort to keep their customers supplied with no interruptions during those eight months, but the timing of the deals is distinct. Mexico is the main source for Tex-Mex from January through March, spilling into April. Texas typically takes over in April and provides onions until about mid-June.

By then the New Mexico deal is getting underway and takes the firm just about to the end of August. On Aug.13 of this year, Davis said his fields in New Mexico had about two more weeks of production left in them.

Tex-Mex grows and sells reds, whites and sweet yellow onions, but it is the sweet onion that forms the backbone of the deal.

The company continues to promote its sweet onions as the 1015 crop, which became Texas’ claim to fame in the sweet onion deal more than a generation ago. But Davis said the varieties used in all three growing areas today are hybrids rather than the open pollinated 1015 that was first developed.

“There is a little difference but basically all the varieties we grow in all three districts are the same,” he said. “They all share the original 1015 as one of their parents.”

And Tex-Mex’s production is also fairly similar in each area. “We grow about 1,000 acres in Mexico, 600-800 in Texas and about 800 in New Mexico,” he said.

But he said the seed companies have improved the varieties over the years, making them sweeter and improving yields. “And every year we always trial new varieties that the seed companies come up with.”

Davis said it has been a fairly good market year for all of the onion varieties. On this particular day, he was selling 25 pound cartons for $10-12, which he said is a decent market. “It was a very good deal this year. We got a very good start out of Mexico from January through March with good pricing and good yields. There was a little bit of a glut in April but it has been pretty good since then.”

Tex-Mex does the bulk of its business with retailers from coast to coast. While ads and promotions do give onion sales a boost from time to time, Davis said it is a good item with steady demand 365 days of the year. As long as supply doesn’t get out of whack, grower-shippers can do well with onions.

Because he does not have production in the ground and doesn’t have his finger on the pulse of the fall deal, Davis would not hazard a guess as to how the market will play out over the next several months. But he had other things on his mind such as getting the Mexican crop for next year in the ground so they can start all over in January.