Recent Texas drought losses at $1.5B

Preliminary figures show the worst drought in decades has amounted to $1.5 billion in recent agricultural losses in Texas and could easily surpass the single-year record, officials said Wednesday. The amount includes costs related to livestock and wheat, corn and sorghum crop losses from November through May 1, according to Texas AgriLife Extension Service spokesman Blair Fannin. Producers and ranchers are facing high input costs, including fertilizer and diesel fuel. Livestock losses of $1.2 billion are from costs associated with trucking in water and for supplemental feed since November. "This is a different beast than drought we've been through in previous years," Fannin said. If drought conditions persist into June, officials say losses will easily top the 2006 record of $4.1 billion in the state that is the nation's second-largest agricultural producer...more