Why Oklahoma Ranchers Are Getting More Federal Drought Aid Than Any Other State

• Logan Layden
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  Logan Layden is a reporter and managing editor for StateImpact Oklahoma. He is a native of McAlester, Oklahoma and graduated from the University of Oklahoma in 2009. Logan spent three years as a state capitol reporter and local host of All Things Considered for NPR member station KGOU in Norman and six years as a reporter with StateImpact from 2011 to 2017. Most recently, he was news director for McAlester Radio before returning to public radio in 2020.

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Since the current drought in western Oklahoma began, ranchers have collected more than $800 million in federal drought relief payments that aid livestock producers. That’s more than any other state, including California and Texas, which have larger cattle industries, The Oklahoman‘s Silas Allen reports.

Here’s why:

[USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey] said the difference is likely due to the fact that Oklahoma’s drought has been less widespread but longer-lasting than California’s. While western Oklahoma has been withering under drought since late 2010, the worst conditions didn’t strike California until 2013, he said.

Allen spoke to Canadian County rancher Eric Bilderback about how difficult it has been too stay in business these past few years and what a “godsend” the federal payments through the USDA’s Livestock Forage Disaster Program are.

Bilderback, 40, raises cattle on a ranch in Canadian County, where drought has lingered for more than four years. In that time, Bilderback and many other ranchers across western Oklahoma have had to sell off cattle to stay in business.

“We’ve been through some tough times,” Bilderback said. “We’ve been through this drought pattern, and that lack of moisture has been rough.”

Another rancher — Ken Carpenter of Mustang — told the paper the program has helped him keep his herd.

As of Thursday, 95 percent of Oklahoma is at least abnormally dry, with severe and exceptional drought conditions concentrated in their usual spots — the southwest and northwest portions of the state.