GRANGER, Texas -- There are fewer cattle feeding at the Ross Ranch in Granger. Two years ago, there were more than 300 cows. Today, that number is down to about 80.
“It’s horrible,” Rancher J.R. Builta said.
Builta said they suffered though a drought last summer and this year only made matters worse. The rising cost of feed has not helped either.
“For $20,000 worth of animals you’re spending $40,000 on hay and feed,” he said. “You can’t survive that way.”
According to the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, Texas is the country’s biggest source of beef. A year ago there were roughly five million cows, but today that number is down. According to the Texas AgriLife Extension Service, the state just went through its largest ever one-year decline. Approximately 600,000 cattle were sold off.
The move has had a ripple effect in Granger.
“The brutal thing is the infrastructure,” Builta said. “The people who repair the tractors, the people who sell the feeds and the seeds.”
One of those people is Clement Strmiska, who runs the Granger Feed and Supply Store. He has seen sales decline on account of the drought, yet refuses to complain.
“We’re optimistic,” Strmiska said. “We’re going to keep going, that’s how we are in this area.”
Next year the U.S. Agriculture Department predicts the decrease in cattle will lead to an increase in beef prices by at least 5 percent or more. The bigger cost, however, may come to communities -- and to ranchers who are unable to afford their livelihoods.
