US | Tue May 24, 2011 8:46pm EDT<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LUBBOCK, TEXAS | BY ELLIOTT BLACKBURN<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A miserable sea of dry brown West Texas grass and charred scrub could\n cripple ranching operations in the country\u2019s top beef-producing state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRight now, it\u2019s literally day-to-day, and Mother Nature\u2019s holding \nall the cards,\u201d said Dennis Braden, general manager of the 130,000-acre \nSwenson Land and Cattle Co.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the state where cowboys riding the open range on horseback herding\n cattle spawned a whole western culture, modern-day ranchers are \nhurting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Severe drought and millions of acres of wildfires have delivered a \npotent one-two punch this year, forcing tough decisions on ranchland \nacross Texas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The state\u2019s livestock industry has lost $1.2 billion under withering \nconditions, according to the Texas Agrilife Extension Service, part of \nTexas A&M University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a bitter pill for Braden and the more than 120-year-old ranch located 170 miles west of Fort Worth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Texas and other states with large cattle herds, the beef industry \nchain starts at the ranch. Farmers own a herd of beef cows, each of \nwhich gives birth to a calf in a typical year. The mother nurses the \ncalf and the pair graze on grass all summer, fattening up the calf for \nmarket. The young calves are eventually weaned from their mothers and \nsent to feedlots to be fattened on grain for slaughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This year, ranchers should be reaping the benefits of high prices, low supplies and high demand for their beef<\/p>\n\n\n\n The demand from for calves from feedlots, where cattle add hundreds \nof pounds before slaughter, seems insatiable. The Swenson ranch entered \nthis season planning to grow by thousands of cattle over several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But he and other calf growers instead spent this spring in a \ndesperate hunt for pastureland and contemplating selling all of their \nlivestock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n His ranch has seen more fire than rain since September. Wildfires \nroared out of a canyon and went on a 35-mile march across his and \nneighboring remote ranchland in April, consuming thousands of acres of \nmesquite and pasture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cattle subsisted on dead grass as his cowboys worked to keep the cattle healthy enough to bear new calves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n West Texas did not have the water to irrigate hay, and thousands of acres of drought-ridden wheat fields never produced a crop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If conditions do not improve by August, he will run out of even low-quality feed for his herds, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe don\u2019t have the grass resources to keep those calves around,\u201d Braden said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fire alone will not devastate a ranch, and managers may often use \ncontrolled burns to improve the range. A good blaze can clear away the \ntall, dead brush hiding the green grass that helps bulk up the herd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Emerald fuzz covered scorched patches of Swenson ranch after less \nthan an inch of rain provided the area\u2019s first shower in nine months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given a good spring storm, the tough, hilly scrub would look like \nIreland, Braden said. But the most recent shower was not near enough to \nbreak the drought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without acres of green, protein-providing grass, cows will struggle \nfor nutrients. The herd will lose interest in breeding and cows will not\n even provide enough milk to their own calves, bringing the first step \nof America\u2019s beef cycle to a halt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The outlook for more rain looks grim. The National Weather Service\u2019s \nClimate Prediction Center forecast below-normal rainfall for Texas over \nthe next month at least.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The cash-green carpet that sprang up from wildfire ash could brown under the Texas sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCouple of days of 40 mile-per-hour winds and 100-degree temperatures\n and it will go back to buckskin,\u201d Braden said. Ranches that could \nafford it hunted for rare acres of pasture outside the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joe Leathers, manager of the historic 6666 Ranch in Guthrie, about \n100 miles east of Lubbock, had moved cattle to New Mexico to keep a \nprized genetic line alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He could not consider liquidating the herd with ranch families and years of breeding programs depending on him, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you had to sell your herd off and wait until it rains, you\u2019re \ngoing to have 75 families out of a job, and a home,\u201d Leathers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt sure would be nice if it rained,\u201d said David Anderson, a livestock agronomist with the Texas Agrilife service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n