DECATUR — At sale barns across Texas, even the best auctioneers are racing to keep up with bad times.
Ranchers are selling off thousands of cows they'd rather keep... the ones that grow the herd.
"The good cattle are coming to market now when they should still be in the pastures having those good babies," said Fred Duvall, who's been a rancher all his life.
He figures another three months of drought will finish off some cattle-raisers. "They'll have to completely sell out. The hay crop is about a third of what it normally is," Duvall said. "The cost of hay is up around $100 a bale."
And watering holes are going dry.
The sale barn in Decatur is so busy, operators have asked ranchers not to bring in so many head of cattle at once. The barn can handle the volume, but the livestock can't handle the heat.
"The problem we're dealing with is the heat index," explained Ronald Davie of the Decatur Livestock Market. "You need more space per animal so they don't get overheated."
He said about twice as many cows as usual are coming to market.
The experts say that eventually, the number of cattle will fall to a point that beef prices will skyrocket.
"It's going to take years to get back good cattle that they're having to sell now," Duvall lamented.
So if you think the heat is on, try it in a rancher's boots... or, worse yet... in a leather coat.
E-mail jdouglas@wfaa.com
