{"id":5783,"date":"2012-02-13T12:15:44","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T18:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=5783"},"modified":"2012-02-13T12:15:44","modified_gmt":"2012-02-13T18:15:44","slug":"can-texas-ranchers-the-kings-of-beef-come-back-from-the-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/13\/can-texas-ranchers-the-kings-of-beef-come-back-from-the-drought\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Texas Ranchers, the Kings of Beef, Come Back from the Drought?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s2DSTKM9pKk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>When it comes to beef production, Texas is at the top. There are twice as many cows in the state as Nebraska, the second biggest cattle-producing state. But after the devastating effects of the drought, with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/12\/14\/things-we-lost-in-the-drought\/\">agricultural\u00a0losses\u00a0estimated\u00a0in the billions<\/a>, hay prices <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/11\/01\/us\/hay-shortage-compounds-woe-in-drought-stricken-texas.html\">nearly tripling<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.dallasobserver.com\/unfairpark\/2011\/12\/drought_forced_record_cattle_s.php\">massive selloffs of cattle<\/a>, will Texas be able to make a comeback?<\/p>\n<p>Nathan Bernier of KUT News, StateImpact Texas&#8217; partner, has a <a href=\"http:\/\/kut.org\/2012\/02\/the-long-road-back-for-texas-cattle-industry-2\/\">new report on how the drought has hit ranchers and livestock owners hard<\/a>, and the impact it will have on your next ribeye:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Ranchers sold off cattle in droves last year, sending prices temporarily lower as beef flooded the market. The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usda.gov\/\">United States Department of Agriculture<\/a>\u00a0says the number of cattle in Texas\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/291618-usda-cattle-inventory-report-jan-27-2012.html\">dropped by 10 percent in 2011<\/a>. That\u2019s an especially large decline when you consider Texas is the biggest beef producer in the country.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>One livestock economist tells Bernier that there are fewer cows now in the country than there&#8217;s been in fifty years. Many cattlemen in Texas are now facing the big question: take their young cows and sell them off, assuming the drought will continue? Or keep them and breed them for more cattle,\u00a0believing\u00a0the drought will soon end? <!--more-->Bernier writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>But holding on to heifers can be a double edged sword, especially in Texas where\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/droughtmonitor.unl.edu\/DM_state.htm?TX,S\">more than 90 percent<\/a>\u00a0of the state is still in drought. That\u2019s why livestock economists have been<a href=\"http:\/\/agrilife.org\/today\/2012\/02\/10\/cattle-producers-advised-to-use-caution-as-prices-march-higher\/?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AgrilifeToday+%28AgriLife+Today%29\">\u00a0urging ranchers not to overstock<\/a>, and instead invest in things like hay storage.<\/p>\n<p>But either way, you can expect to pay more at the checkout aisle. The USDA is forecasting that <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/12\/07\/your-burgers-about-to-cost-more-thanks-drought\/\">beef prices will rise by as much as ten percent this year<\/a> and next.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/kut.org\/2012\/02\/the-long-road-back-for-texas-cattle-industry-2\/\">Read the full story at KUT.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to beef production, Texas is at the top. There are twice as many cows in the state as Nebraska, the second biggest cattle-producing state. But after the devastating effects of the drought, with\u00a0agricultural\u00a0losses\u00a0estimated\u00a0in the billions, hay prices nearly tripling and massive selloffs of cattle, will Texas be able to make a comeback? [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"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\/5783"}],"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=5783"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5806,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5783\/revisions\/5806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}