Drought is re-shaping the beef map and raising the price of steak. Ranchers are moving herds from California to Colorado and from Texas to Nebraska seeking refuge from dry weather. And cattle producers in the Midwest are making the most of it. In 2014, for the first time, Nebraska passed Texas as the top cattle feeding state in the country. That is, Nebraska houses the most cattle in feedlots, which are generally the final step before they head to the slaughterhouse. It’s a turnaround brought on by a long-term decline in cattle numbers and an ongoing drought that has devastated the southern Plains. That has caused the cattle industry to look north. If Nebraska’s “cattle motels” have fewer vacancies these days, it is largely because ranchers in the southern Plains have emptied out parched pastures waiting for a rainy day.
Oklahoma State University livestock marketing specialist Derrell Peel said ponds are drying up across large parts of Oklahoma and Texas.
“Western Oklahoma -- the panhandle, the panhandle of Texas and in fact much of west Texas and much of western New Mexico are still in extremely severe drought,” Peel said. “There’s been very little relief really since the fall of 2010.” As a result, herds are shrinking. In Texas, feedlots, and even a Cargill packing plant,
have closed because of the drought’s impact on cattle numbers. Texas,
the country’s No. 1 beef state, lost 24 percent of its total beef herd
from 2010-2014. Oklahoma saw a 13 percent cut. Missouri, which housed
about 6 percent of the nation’s beef cattle at the start of the drought,
lost roughly 8 percent of its herd. In fact, national herd
numbers are the smallest they’ve been since the 1950s and that’s
important if you ever buy steaks or hamburger to throw on the grill. Low
cattle numbers are a big reason meat prices are so high. The trend started long ago...more
New Mexico is down 23 percent. See all the states here.
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
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