‘No Water Here': Drought Drives California Ranchers to Thin Herds

Rancher Gary Tarbell stands in the sale barn at the Tulare County Stockyard watching as cattle pass through a gate, into a ring and, one by one, are sold to the highest bidder. “They’re going out of state, all these cattle,” Tarbell says. “There’s no water here.” Just as farmers in the Central Valley are fallowing thousands of acres because of the drought, cattle ranchers are also cutting production. In fact, herd numbers nationwide are at their lowest since the 1950s, due in part to the Texas and California droughts. “We had to cut way back,” Tarbell says. “I sold over half of my herd already because there’s no water on the ranch.” That’s not atypical, says Jon Dolieslager, owner of the Tulare County Stockyard. “Everybody here is selling, you know, probably double of what they would normally do just because they’re out of feed.” Dolieslager is also the auctioneer. He takes a quick break from doing his auction cry — or, as some say, “cattle rattle” — and points to the pen behind him. “We’ve probably got close to a thousand head of feeder cattle out there today that we have to sell,” he says. Those are drought numbers. On a sale day in a wet year, he would be selling anywhere from 300 to 500 feeder cattle — steers and heifers destined to go to feedlots...more