{"id":2829,"date":"2011-12-07T10:38:49","date_gmt":"2011-12-07T16:38:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=2829"},"modified":"2011-12-07T15:42:12","modified_gmt":"2011-12-07T21:42:12","slug":"your-burgers-about-to-cost-more-thanks-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/12\/07\/your-burgers-about-to-cost-more-thanks-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Burger&#8217;s About to Cost More Thanks to The Texas Drought"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2842\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 292px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"Brioche Mini-burgers. Due to the drought, beef prices are expected to rise. \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/12\/482375224_33f61ed362_z.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2842\" title=\"482375224_33f61ed362_z\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/12\/482375224_33f61ed362_z-300x308.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"292\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/12\/482375224_33f61ed362_z-300x308.jpg 300w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/12\/482375224_33f61ed362_z-620x636.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/12\/482375224_33f61ed362_z-220x226.jpg 220w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/12\/482375224_33f61ed362_z.jpg 623w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 292px) 100vw, 292px\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Photo by Flicr user chotda\/Creative Commons<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brioche Mini-burgers. Due to the drought, beef prices are expected to rise.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The drought has wreaked havoc on many facets of Texas life: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/10\/31\/business\/energy-environment\/catastrophic-drought-in-texas-causes-global-economic-ripples.html\">farming<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/web.live.weatherbug.com\/StormCentral\/Page\/StormCentral.aspx?no_cookie_zip=98101&amp;no_cookie_stat=PACSC&amp;no_cookie_world_stat=&amp;zcode=z4202&amp;story_id=12838&amp;lid=SCSPS\">pecan trees<\/a>, even <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/11\/25\/texas-asks-hunters-for-help-in-the-drought\/\">hunting<\/a>. It&#8217;s also been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ft.com\/cms\/s\/0\/864e858a-ecf1-11e0-be97-00144feab49a.html#axzz1frsBy5N2\">hell for the state&#8217;s cattle industry<\/a>: 600,000 cows were sold off as grazing land dried up and feed prices soared. Today, the Texas Agrilife Extension <a href=\"http:\/\/agrilife.org\/today\/2011\/12\/07\/fewer-cows-and-calves-will-lead-to-strong-cattle-market-in-2012\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=twitter&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AgrilifeToday+%28AgriLife+Today%29\">released its forecast<\/a> for cattle prices in 2012, and not surprisingly, they are going to be high.<\/p>\n<p>Because there are fewer cows in Texas, there are fewer calves, which means a tighter market and higher prices. The Agrilife Extension reports a twelve percent decline this year in beef cattle nationally,\u00a0&#8220;the second largest decline in history since 1934-1935 (eighteen percent), as 550,000 head of cows were sold off during that time.&#8221; Another bad year was 1996, when 400,000 cows were sold off or died during a drought. For next year, beef production is predicted to be down four percent.\u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignright\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/12\/05\/after-days-of-rain-the-drought-is-still-here\/\">After Days of Rain, the Drought is Still\u00a0Here<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/12\/06\/looking-to-the-distant-past-to-understand-future-droughts\/\">Looking to the Distant Past to Understand Future Droughts<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/11\/07\/ten-things-you-should-know-about-the-texas-drought\/\">Ten Things You Should Know About the Texas Drought<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/11\/119835727-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/drought\/\">Everything You Need to Know About the Texas Drought<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/08\/WaterinTexas1-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/water-in-texas\/\">Your Guide to Water Issues In\u00a0Texas<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>What does this mean for your dinner table? Well, beef is going to cost more, especially the good stuff. There&#8217;s a &#8220;growing demand&#8221; for choice beef over select (two of the USDA grades of beef), according to Dr. David Anderson, AgriLife Extension livestock economist. Wal-Mart is selling more choice beef, adding to the demand.<\/p>\n<p>Beginning with the recession in 2008, hamburger sales went up as consumers tried to &#8220;stretch their dollar,&#8221; Anderson said in the report. \u201cAs a result, hamburger, chuck and rounds have reached record prices.\u201d But he also says people are buying more steaks, so \u201cperhaps the economy is not as bad as some might think.&#8221; Bottom line: whether it&#8217;s a royale with cheese or a Texas ribeye,\u00a0 expect to pay more for both in the future because of the drought.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What does the Texas drought mean for your dinner table? Well, beef is going to cost more, especially the good stuff. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":2842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[61,85],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2829"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2844,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2829\/revisions\/2844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}