Cowboys riding out of drought-hit Texas

This year, Texas endured one hell of a summer - the hottest and driest on record. "There's been days when it's been 114 degrees [45.5C], with a 30mph wind," said Dennis Braden, the general manager of the Swenson Land & Cattle Co, a ranch that has reared cattle since the 1850s. "Imagine a blow dryer in your face; I ain't never seen a summer like it." When there was no rain last winter, the ranchers sat tight for the spring deluge. When that failed, they started getting nervous. After the summer showed no respite, the Swenson ranch moved its cattle north, out of Texas for the first time. Last month more than 1000 Black Angus and Herefords were taken by rail to leased pastures in West Nebraska and Wyoming. "How long are they going to stay there? I don't have a clue," said Mr Braden. The number of breeding cows shipped out of the state increased 140 per cent last month, compared with the same period a year earlier. Nearly nine out of ten ranches has reduced its herd. The last time there were so few cows in Texas was the 1950s, another period of serious drought. "We hear the trucks rumbling. They're taking the cattle north," said Sandra Rhea, the curator of the Cowboy Museum in the town of Stamford. "We counted 18 18-wheelers in a day. That's a lot of cows." Since 1895, when Texas began keeping records, there has never been a drier or hotter year...more