{"id":14430,"date":"2012-07-05T12:43:30","date_gmt":"2012-07-05T17:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=14430"},"modified":"2012-07-05T12:43:37","modified_gmt":"2012-07-05T17:43:37","slug":"for-texas-ranchers-the-grass-isnt-always-greener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/07\/05\/for-texas-ranchers-the-grass-isnt-always-greener\/","title":{"rendered":"For Texas Ranchers, the Grass Isn’t Always Greener"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Scott Olson\/Getty Images<\/p>

Victoria Hogue helps to move cattle into pens after they had been sold at the Abilene Livestock Auction in July 2011. The drought caused shortages of grass, hay and water forcing ranchers to thin their herds. <\/p><\/div>\n

Last year\u2019s drought<\/a> dried up hay fields, sent feed prices through the roof and forced many Texas ranchers to sell off large portions of their herds<\/a>. And while winter rains helped ease the drought<\/a> in Central and East Texas, they weren’t enough to wipe it out completely.<\/p>\n

Yes, grass\u00a0initially\u00a0came back on the ranches of Central and East Texas, but it’s been a dry few months. “The hay fields aren’t doing any good at all,” says Elgin rancher Brent Johnson. “I mean, you know,\u00a0you’re lucky to get a 50 percent production off of ’em at best, and that’s probably even stretching it.” But because there are less cows this year after last year’s sell-off, the little hay production Johnson does have can cover his herd for now.<\/p>\n

“Most of the state is out of exceptional drought now,” says\u00a0Gene Hall with the Texas Farm Bureau. “But the real problem is going to be feed, growing enough grass, [and] putting enough hay away to matter.”<\/p>\n

Some think the state’s cattle industry may never fully recover from the drought. But Hall says the cattle business is cyclical. “You can track it over time,” Hall says. “The beef economists, the cattle economists can look at it and show you okay, cattle numbers will build to the point where prices decline, they sell off, and then they start building again. Ranchers want to be building their herds now.”<\/p>\n

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