Severe drought testing Texas cattle industry’s survival instincts

Texas cattle rancher Bill Hyman characterizes people in his industry as “survivalists and optimists.” But the state’s worst drought in 44 years is testing both sides of that assessment. Hyman said he cut his cow herd by more than a third over the winter, to about 80 animals, because persistent dryness has left him with little pasture for grazing. Gonzalez County, where Hyman is located, once had the most cattle of any county in Texas, he said. Now it’s closer to No. 7, he said, because drought has forced so many ranchers to sell cows and bulls. “I just don’t have the carrying capacity and the hay to feed them,” Hyman, 61, said in a March 30 phone interview. He is executive director of the Austin-based Independent Cattlemen’s Association of Texas. “If it doesn’t rain the next 30 days, I’m going to have to go back into the herd and cull more.” Hyman and other ranchers are farmers across Texas, the top U.S. beef producer, are grappling with a severe drought that threatens to further pinch the state’s $10.5 billion cattle industry and is also hurting growth of wheat and other crops...more