Texas ranchers worry as Round Two of drought looms

Despite this week's rains, worries about a looming Round Two have farmers rethinking what they plant based on water needs and heat tolerances. Expect to see more drought-tolerant cotton patches, less corn and fewer thirsty vegetable fields this year, experts say. The drought will also echo across ranchlands for years to come. The state cow count dropped by about 700,000 last year to 4.5 million, its lowest since the 1950s, as ranchers liquidated herds or trucked stock to greener pastures in the north, said Eldon White, vice president of the Fort Worth-based Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. Even with more rain, pastures will take one to three years to recover, he said. "Ranchers won't build up herds until it rains again," White said. The drought has shifted the way the historic Four Sixes Ranch operates, said Joe Leathers, general manager. The giant spread, with its headquarters in Guthrie, has moved half its herd to Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota. "This is the meanest thing that has happened to the cattle industry in my lifetime," Leathers said. "I don't know of this many cattle having been moved north to this magnitude since the early 1900s. "Some people have sold out; some moved their cattle north. I'm not sure anybody knows what the right answer is. Time will only tell who made the right decisions."...more