Drought effects in Texas

[WyandotteTX]

For those who dont know we here in Texas are in the midst of one of the worst droughts in the states history, and that is saying something.
I was talking to my dad and he raises cattle, we always have. He was informing me he had finally located some hay(milo stalks at that) about an hour and half away so he will have something to feed in the winter. He does not have a large herd of cattle but is going to have to sell about half of them next week because there is no more grass for them to eat. We have 4 stock tanks on our land(210 acres) and all of them are dry now. He is providing water each day for them in four large water troughs that they drink dry by the next morning. I have seen bad conditions here in Texas in my life but this is getting bad.
One of my dad's friends he goes to church with is a cattle hauler, a person who hauls cattle to different sales in the area for people who dont have the means or the time to do so. The hauler said he was working around the clock hauling to about a half dozen different cattle sales in that area. Ive been to these sales many times and on average there will be about 800-1000 head at each sale each week. Well, I was talking to dad and he said every sale is running at about 300% of what they usually sell. One sale had as many as 3700 head sell.......they started the auction at noon and didnt finish until the next morning at 10 am......completely unheard of in my lifetime! Most of the cattle are going to slaughter but some are going north to greener pastures and some are even being shipped to Turkey if you can imagine that.
Its hard to imagine much of a cattle industry surviving in this state with this much environmental pressure placed upon producers. I personally have known at least a half dozen long time cattleman that have sold completely out of the business...
A true, random rambling for everyone tonight.

 

[ChickieBooBoo]

We're usually very wet in my area but this year its been super dry and hot. The crops are starting to suffer, everything has dried up. This year has been really wacky

 

[Rollerman]

I saw them talking about the drought on the news. and some of my Okie friends were talking about the sale barns being full. Thats terrible. I just can't even imagine how desperate those farmers must be feeling. No cattle means a lot won't be able to hold onto their land and things just spiral downhill from there. Why can't the government step in do air lifts of hay. They would if it was another country. WE help everyone but our own it seems!

 

[Delta2 23]

It's been exactly the opposite down here, we've gotten so much rain it's uncharacteristically scary... I wonder what's happening

 

[redhen]

Sorry to hear the cattle are suffering.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Everything here is suffering, animals, trees, streams, farmers, ranchers and others. It is parched, hot and dry!

 

[WyandotteTX]

Hey, but the good news is they are still pouring hundreds of thousands of gallons of water each day on the golf courses!.....
Luckily the fire danger hasnt been as bad as it was earlier this year that would only add insult to injury.
I think they would bring in hay for people if there was any hay being made. With so little rain all over the state, there isnt very much hay being made anywhere unfortunately. My dad still has some rolls of year old hay in the barn that he is saving for emergency and I think he bought 66 rolls of milo stalks so he should have enough to feed his....that is with selling half of his herd though.
One good side effect from the drought is perhaps it will get dry enough to start killing cedar trees again.....which does actually happen. Only good cedar tree is a dead cedar tree in my opinion

 

[LindsayB]

We've had a few wildfires in our area but thank god they have been contained quickly. Our house is in the back of the neighborhood next to woods and cattle farms and I'm always afraid of a fire starting out there. I've noticed that all of the big oak tree's leaves have turned brown recently. Not really sure if its just stressfull on them or if they're actually dead. Its weird though...Seeing a thick forest dotted with huge brown trees in the summertime. I hope we start to get some good rain here, I never imagined it would get like this. I was watching the news yesterday and they were talking about how cattle ranchers are having the worst luck. When they move the cattle to different pastures they are so thirsty and drink so much water at one time, that within minutes they die...from water! Thats just crazy...

 

[dewey]

I'm so sorry your family is having to sell off. It's going to be a very tough next few years for ranchers and consumers. AZ has been hard hit, too, and hay farmers here have donated a couple of hundred thousand dollars worth of hay and transport to the ranchers here that depended on their own fields or grazing rights (much of it burned in the fires, like TX), yet many ranchers and hay farmers will never recover from this.

We hay 2000 acres of alfalfa every year up north on the family ranch...haying now, as a matter of fact...but it's too expensive to have it trucked to the lower states. There's plenty of hay to be had but it's just too costly to transport it to the states that need it. Cotton production is up 25% across the U.S and much of that is from ranchers or hay farms that cleared land and set up for cotton...not something that's able to be quickly switched back over to hay. We stayed with alfalfa because that's what the family has done on the ranch for over 100 years.

The outcome of the cattle industry, along with other ag industries, taking this kind of hit is a complete unknown. It won't be good, I do know that.

 

[Dunkopf]

I heard a blurb on NPR that cattle are dying from drinking too much water because the heat is making them so thirsty.