How are Texas cattle ranchers handling the double burden of drought and the economic recession?
Ranchers are doing just about like everybody else: They’re cutting costs and really watching their expenses, and just trying to weather the storm. Our business, like every business, is tied to the economy. The drought came at a very inopportune time. Q: Have the recent rains alleviated the effects of the drought? A: We still have residual effects. I guess more than anything, it gave people hope. The rain coming in the fall of the year, it sure helped, but we won’t grow a lot of grass between now and the winter. So people who were feeding hay, most of them will have to keep feeding hay. Q: Tell me how exactly drought affects cattle ranchers. A: Most of your growth comes from the cattle eating grass. When you lose the grass, you have to go to some higher-costing feed. When you get into very much higher costing feed, then the profit margin is completely gone. Q: Have you seen any ranchers knocked out of business completely by all this? A: Oh, yes. We’ve had a lot of people that just total
