DRIED UP: Texas cattle industry faces existential crisis from historic drought Print
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Written by The Hill Press   
Thursday, 18 August 2022 10:01

texas-dry-land-2022More than 80 percent of the West is in severe drought this year, according to the National Drought Monitor — up from just 20 percent last year.


AUSTIN, Texas — The megadrought in the Western U.S., the region’s worst in 1,200 years, is threatening America’s cattle heartland: withering pastures, wrecking feed harvests and endangering a quintessential way of life.

The drought is forcing ranchers here in Texas and across the Southern plains to make an agonizing decision: Sell early now for less money than they planned on — or hold on, pray for rain and risk losing everything.

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