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Texas Agriculture Archive

December 2, 2005

The 'D' Word

Drought losses estimated at $1 billion by spring...

Losses from the 2005 drought in Texas are mounting in the eastern half of the state, but agriculture still has some bright spots.

Damage to the livestock sector could reach $1 billion by next spring, said Dr. Carl Anderson, professor emeritus with Texas Cooperative Extension. He and Dr. David Anderson, Extension agricultural economist-livestock marketing, estimated the losses from:

• The harvest of only about half of the 2005 hay crop. The lack of rainfall kept many Texas farmers from harvesting second and third cuttings of hay.

• The supplemental feeding of hay and protein to livestock for an extra three to five months.

• Fewer stocker calves in Central Texas, the Rolling Plains and the Panhandle due to a lack of moisture. Stocker calves will be shipped straight to the feedlot at lighter weights.

• Lower market prices for calves this fall.

Ranchers began selling lighter calves and taking lower prices this fall because they could see they did not have enough grazing for the winter, Carl Anderson said.

The ranchers "wanted to get the calves weaned so the cows would be in better condition for the winter," he said.

Ranchers—especially those in the eastern two-thirds of the state—have been hurt by the lack of forage since spring, he said.

"We've had no relief in the way of rainfall this September and October when we normally get our wheat and fall grazing off to a start and get some supplemental grazing during the winter," he said. "We're at the point now that even if it does rain, with the short daylight hours and cool temperatures, there will be little winter growth of grass and wheat for grazing until spring."

On the other hand, some parts of Far West Texas had record early spring rains and good summer and fall rains, said Dr. Bruce Carpenter, Extension livestock specialist in Fort Stockton.

The weather station at the district Extension office there reported 20 inches of rain for the year so far, about 33 percent above average.

"We've been dry since October, but we have good standing forage going into the winter," Carpenter said.

The sale of cattle and calves make up about 50 percent of the cash receipts in the state, according to the Texas Agricultural Statistics Service.

"When we're talking about drought damage, we're talking about almost half of all of the cash receipts in Texas agriculture coming from the cow/calf operator," Carl Anderson said.

"Our livestock industry has really become a huge part of our agriculture," he said, adding that the drought losses are serious.

However, cotton farmers are harvesting a record crop—their second in a row, Carl Anderson said. Cotton is the No. 1 cash crop and makes up 9 percent of agricultural cash receipts.

The harvest is complete in the southern half of the state, and from San Angelo northward, about halfway complete. Only about 25 percent has been ginned in that area of the state though, he said, and farmers have run out of tarps to put on the modules still sitting in the fields. The gins are working steadily, he said.