The drought is further dimming prospects for rebuilding the US cattle herd, which has already shrunk to a 75-year low as farmers opt to sell animals for slaughter instead of keeping them for breeding. Stock Image: Getty
Lauren Rosenthal, Erin Ailworth and Ilena Peng
BloombergYesterday at 07:14
Farmers across the Great Plains are confronting an intense drought that threatens winter wheat harvests and is pushing cattle producers toward costly feed purchases, prompting some to abandon plans to expand their herds.
The dryness is expected to persist through spring after weeks of scant rainfall and a late-winter heat spell that fueled massive pasture fires across the nation’s breadbasket. Drought now covers nearly 90% of Nebraska and Oklahoma, with more than half of Nebraska in ‘extreme’ drought. Such conditions have historically driven cattle producers to sell off animals and forced farmers to drill new irrigation wells as rivers run dry.