Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Texas drought threatens cattle ranchers' livelihood
It's auction day at the West Cattle Barn in central Texas, reports CBS News correspondent Don Teague. For 74-year-old rancher Cotton Dietrich, this will be his last. Deitrich is selling off his herd -- all of his cattle -- because the once-fertile grasslands that feed them are gone. Three-quarters of Texas is in extreme or exceptional drought. Lubbock has had less than an inch of rain this year. Houston has had just over an inch-and-a-half in three months -- about the same as the Sahara desert. Wildfires are ravaging the tinder dry landscape, scorching more than two million acres since January. To make matters worse, this is typically the Texas rainy season. "We should be seeing rainfall, so if we don't get rainfall in the next several months, the impact is going to be devastating," said Victor Murphy, meteorologist at the National Weather Service. For Dietrich and thousands of ranchers across Texas, the only choice is to sell their herds or go broke trying to feed them...more
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1 comment:
and Obama said " don't call me, I have already helped Texas all I can", lets open the borders with Mexico!
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