OMAHA — A scorching drought in the southern plains has caused hay prices to soar, benefiting farmers to the north but forcing many ranchers to make a difficult choice between paying high prices or selling their cattle.
Ranchers in much of Texas, Oklahoma and even Kansas are having to pay inflated prices for hay and then shell out even more to have it trucked hundreds of miles from Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska or South Dakota. Their only other options are to reduce the size of their herds or move cattle to rented pastures in another state.
“It’s pretty ugly,” said Don Davis, who raises grass-fed beef on his ranch northwest of San Antonio.
Davis said he used to think last year’s dry weather couldn’t get worse, but this year’s record-setting drought has put even more pressure on ranchers.
Parts of Texas haven’t received any rain since last fall, and forecasters predict the drought will last at least through November. The situation isn’t much better in western Oklahoma, southern New Mexico and parts of southern Kansas.
Officials say only a handful of Texas’ 254 counties received enough rain to grow hay this year, so significantly less is available at the same time demand has skyrocketed because pastures are parched.
That is why the average price of hay climbed to $170 per ton this summer from $112 per ton last July, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics. But many ranchers are paying much more because the price doesn’t include shipping costs.
