Drought Tough On Cattle Ranchers

As he watches his cattle released out onto the floor at the Lockhart Auction, Caldwell County cattle rancher Reinhart Homan is expecting to get, not the 5 to 600 dollars he usually gets per head of cattle, but a cut rate of around 375 dollars.

"We didn't have no oats to graze and I couldn't afford to feed them everyday," Homan said.  "Buy all the feed for them so I sold them all out here."

The drought across Texas, making it hard to stock water, grow oats and shipping-in feed makes it too expensive to beef up the cattle to a higher per-pound selling price. So it's sell now or miss an opportunity.

"They're not the calves they're supposed to be with no feed no hay no water," Homan said.

Tim Von Dohlen II Co-owns and manages Lockhart Auction. He says the drought has led to entire herd selloffs and other big sell, herd reductions. That's why he says they've brought in buyers from states like Oklahoma and Mississippi.

"Once we know we've got sets of cattle coming, we're able to call different people in different areas of the country that have pasture and grass and water and are in need of buying cattle to develop that market so they get a fair price," Dohlen said.

With ranches dried out, the cattle suffer too. The drought might not be having an effect on the number of cattle this year but Von Dohlen says it will lead to reduced conception rates and fewer calves next year.

He says whether fewer calves leads to higher beef prices at grocery stores is a complex equation with the main variables being the price of grain to feed the cattle and consumer demand for beef.

Homan, a life-long rancher says he's hoping demand for beef is high, while hoping for some serious rain so he can get his ranch beefed back up.

"I planted oats in September and it never come up."

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