TEXAS \u2014\u00a0Across the country, the ranching industry has struggled to adapt to lingering drought and inflation, resulting in the lowest cattle supply since 1961 and causing beef prices to soar.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the reason behind the\u00a0U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s (USDA) announcement of a plan\u00a0to revitalize the industry and hopefully lower prices for consumers.<\/p>\n
One problem the plan addresses is the shortage of grass for cattle to eat because of the longstanding drought. Seguin rancher Bryan Luensmann says he\u2019s had to use what he calls \u201crotational grazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just move the cows around the ranch so this grass has a chance to regrow and establish its roots,\u201d Luensmann said.<\/p>\n
The USDA\u2019s announcement includes a plan to open up federally managed lands for grazing. Luensmann says it\u2019s a good idea but might not have much impact in the Lone Star State.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Texas, where everything is privately owned, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s feasible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Over 93% of Texas is private land, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.<\/p>\n
Along with the USDA\u2019s announcement came a proposal from President Donald Trump to import more beef from Argentina.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt kind of stunned a lot of people. This is a double-bladed sword,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Luensmann explained that Argentinian cattle are mostly grass-fed, which makes the beef leaner. Because Americans typically like more fat in things like steaks, he says importing lean beef might not bring down the price for prime cuts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could see them bringing in box meat, but it\u2019s lean, and chopping it up with our trimmings to cheapen up hamburger meat. But your prime cuts, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to affect them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Luensmann believes Texas\u2019 cattle industry can bounce back but needs a new generation to keep it alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf somebody doesn\u2019t step in and make it where kids want to get into it, I don\u2019t see us ever getting out,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TEXAS \u2014\u00a0Across the country, the ranching industry has struggled to adapt to lingering drought and inflation, resulting in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[30721,3645,132,1570,102,138,30720,223,287,82,27,29,28,1569,835],"class_list":["post-56500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-app-agriculture","tag-app-national-politics","tag-austin","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-lily-celeste","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}