"Texas driving its cattle north amid drought", LA Times, Oct. 9, 2011
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-texas-cattle-20111009,0,1766138.story
This story tells about the ranchers in Texas, who are trucking their cattle north to Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, and Minnesota.
In Texas, the drought is so bad they can no longer feed or provide water for the cattle.
"By January, about 12% of Texas' roughly 5 million head of cattle will have disappeared since last year — shipped, slaughtered or sold, according to David Anderson, an economist with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, an agriculture education agency based at Texas A&M University.
"Swenson has paid about $70,000 to ship 1,200 head — two-thirds of the herd — to Tryon, Neb., and Lusk, Wyo. They are all cows, the precious breeding stock they have cultivated since Swedish immigrants staked out the territory in the 1860s."
"Texas, with the nation's largest cattle industry, provides 16% of America's beef. U.S. beef prices are expected to increase this year as much as 8%, twice the increase in overall food costs, according to the Department of Agriculture."
No comments:
Post a Comment