by Bettie Cross
CBS NEWS
Wednesday, July 6th 2022
Unrelenting heat and drought conditions are burning up the Central Texas corn crop.
Unrelenting heat and drought conditions are burning up the Central Texas corn crop.
Ranchers are also being forced to buy hay because pastures have dried up.
(Photo: Bettie Cross)
CENTRAL, Texas — Unrelenting heat and drought conditions are burning up the Central Texas corn crop. Ranchers are also being forced to buy hay for their cattle because pastures have dried up.
"We missed the last couple of good rains," said Milam County rancher Heath Rieger.
Rieger says the stock tanks on his family’s ranch are getting low and pastures have shriveled to the point he’s having to provide cattle with supplemental feeding.
"This is when we should be putting up hay to make it through the winter. We're having to buy hay to feed our cattle in July when we should be making hay," said Rieger.
To make matters worse, hay prices have nearly doubled since last winter.
“A lot of people are at the point where they're going to have to decide do I want to buy hay to keep my cattle or do I want to sell out and possibly not get back in the game,” said Rieger.
The 3rd generation rancher says the last year that was this tough was 2011.
“A lot of people, including ourselves, sold off a lot of cattle and it takes years to build that back up,” said Rieger.
A dry, scorching forecast has farmers and ranchers saying they'll just try to push through and survive the summer.
“Keep praying for rain and doing rain dances,” said Rieger.
CENTRAL, Texas — Unrelenting heat and drought conditions are burning up the Central Texas corn crop. Ranchers are also being forced to buy hay for their cattle because pastures have dried up.
"We missed the last couple of good rains," said Milam County rancher Heath Rieger.
Rieger says the stock tanks on his family’s ranch are getting low and pastures have shriveled to the point he’s having to provide cattle with supplemental feeding.
"This is when we should be putting up hay to make it through the winter. We're having to buy hay to feed our cattle in July when we should be making hay," said Rieger.
To make matters worse, hay prices have nearly doubled since last winter.
“A lot of people are at the point where they're going to have to decide do I want to buy hay to keep my cattle or do I want to sell out and possibly not get back in the game,” said Rieger.
The 3rd generation rancher says the last year that was this tough was 2011.
“A lot of people, including ourselves, sold off a lot of cattle and it takes years to build that back up,” said Rieger.
A dry, scorching forecast has farmers and ranchers saying they'll just try to push through and survive the summer.
“Keep praying for rain and doing rain dances,” said Rieger.
No comments:
Post a Comment