Storm’s effect on cattle could be devastating
Ranchers’ losses may top hundreds of millions of dollars
Dinah Weil rode in on an airboat, desperate to see the red heads and humps of her Brahman cattle. Three days had passed since she had evacuated the flooded HK Cattle ranch and left 250 of the purebred bovines standing in ankle-deep water.
Before Hurricane Harvey fully made its way into the area, Weil had loaded the youngest calves, their mothers and a bull into trucks and driven them to safety away from the 300-acre ranch, about 45 miles south of Houston. The others were stranded when rising floodwater became too deep for trucks to get through.
HK Cattle, like a significant number of Texas’ ranchers, was set to lose a significant amount of money if the herds drowned. State officials fear thousands of cattle may have died in the flooding or its aftermath.
With more than 1.2 million head, the counties affected by Hurricane Harvey are home to 1 in 4 of all beef cows in Texas, the nation’s largest producer.
Officials are still tallying the damages, but one report said that 250 cows
were found in a pile after being washed down the Colorado River. Others found alive are often hungry, thirsty and worn out.
“We’re finding cattle in waistdeep water,” said Sid Miller, Texas Agriculture commissioner. “But when we try to drive them to dry ground, many of them just collapse they’ re so exhausted .”
Weil was lucky. As the airboat entered the front gates, she saw the glorious red humps. The resilient Brahmans had survived, moving to higher but still-soggy ground. She only lost a single calf.
“I would sigh, a huge sigh of relief, that their heads were above water, ”Weilsaid.
Few insure herds
Between 2011 and 2014, sales of beef cattle and calves in the state averaged $10.7 billion annually, according to the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service and AgriLife Research. Cattle account for half of Texas’ agricultural cash value.
But while crops damaged by Harvey’s torrents will likely be insured, most ranchers don’t insure their herds, often citing costs, with the possible exception of a prized breeding bull here or there.
Thus, cattle raisers could be out hundreds of thousands of dollars if an entire herd were to drown. An average beef cow sold for $1,500 in May at the Oklahoma National Stockyards, branded as the world’s largest stocker and feeder cattle market.
The Livestock Indemnity Program with the U.S. Department of Agriculture could provide some aid to ranchers, but Miller said it likely won’ t be enough.
“It’s a pittance,” he said. “We’ll have to appeal to Congress to put some more money in that fund, I’ m sure.”
After Hurricane Ike in 2008, economists at Texas A&M estimated more than $430 million in direct agricultural losses. Of that, cattle losses totaled $13.3 million and damages to fences, hay and the like were $23.3 million.
Harvey could be more costly because it affected a larger area, said David Anderson, an A&M professor and agriculture economist.
“I think the fears of our losses are oftentimes bigger than what the actual number of dead animals turn out to be, but this was a big storm,” Anderson said. “I think it’s just going to take us some more time to find out.”
Either way, he doesn’t expect it to affect meat prices in grocery stores. Ranchers along the coastal regions of Texas mostly have beef cows used for breeding. Their calves are sent to Panhandle feedlots, where they grow to their full weight before going to meat packers.
Short-term meat prices may be affected if a major storm hits the Texas Panhandle. If ranchers lost cattle being prepped for meat packers, that could affect supply more immediately.
Ultimately, Anderson said, the number of cattle lost in Harvey won’t be large enough to affect the nation’s beef production, which is on track to yield a record amount next year.
“The long-term trend in the U.S. over the past couple of years is increasingbeef production ,” he said.
Blessed with a strong breed
Weil knows HK Cattle was fortunate.
“The Brahman cattle are a very strong breed,” she said. “And if they can survive, they will and they did.”
But survival isn’t the only issue, since standing in water for nine days can cause stress or illness. Weil said she will give the cattle plenty of time to heal before inviting buyers over. She said the younger calves generally lose hair on their legs after flooding, but the hair will grow back.
“Good feed, good hay, sunshine and just let them rest ,” she said.
Dr. Dan Posey, a veterinarian and clinical professor with the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, said cattle standing in water will have weakened skin and hooves that are susceptible to infection. And the stresses of prolonged standing, lack of food and no drinkable water could make the cattle susceptible to respiratory disease.
“Not all of them will recover even though they were rescued,” Posey said.
Some cattle were still waiting to be rescued Thursday, and various entities are providing food to the stranded livestock. The Texas Army National Guard, for instance, has used CH-47 Chinook helicopters to deliver more than 75 tons of hay.
The Texas Department of Agriculture and the A&M Extension Service are collecting donations of animal hay and feed, which will be needed to feed cattle as pastures recover. The Agriculture Department has also received more than $42,000 for its State of Texas Agriculture Relief Fund to help farmers and ranchers rebuild fences, restore operations and pay for other agricultural disaster relief.
The Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association has likewise established the Cattle Raisers Relief Fund for monetary donations.
As of Thursday, the association was receiving more reports of stranded cattle needing aid rather than dead cattle. Its special rangers are working with other officials to assist in cases where cattle are stranded.
“We’ve weathered a lot of storms here in Texas from other hurricanes to droughts to wildfires to other floods,” said Jeremy Fuchs, director of public affairs for the Cattle Raisers Association. “Each have their challenges, but in each case the industry has come together to help get those folks back on their feet and backup and we’ re extremely confident in the long run there’s not going to be a large impact on the health of the Texas industry.”
As the waters recede and ranchers begin collecting cattle, many will find their livestock mixed in with that of other ranchers.
It will be easy to return the branded cattle once floodwaters subside. But more time, and detective work, will be needed for cattle that aren’t branded. Officials will have to match the breed, color, age and other identifying characteristics to ranchers’ records and missing-cattle reports.
At the J.D. Hudgins ranch in Hungerford, the roughly 600 cattle belonging to five different divisions of the Hudg ins family got mixed up in the flood waters.
Coleman Locke, president of J.D. Hudgins, had moved his cattle to higher grounds before the storm. When the rains subsided, he said, the cattle weren’ t where he left them — they had found even higher ground two pastures over.
“I really don’t know how they got there,” Locke said. “That’s a mystery to us.”
The fences were intact, so maybe they swam.
‘Have to pay it forward’
J.D. Hudgins lost only a handful of cattle. But the ranch doesn’t expect any financial fallout from Harvey.
Agricultural communities may be less fortunate.
If there aren’ t calves to sell at the local auction market, the auction business and its employees as well as the truck drivers who haul the calves away could also be hurt.
“When we have a disaster like this, the effects go beyond just the farm or ranch ,” said Anderson, the A&M economist.
It’s simply too soon to tell what the aftermath of Harvey will bring.
For Weil, she plans to help others in her community since HK Cattle has received so much help. On Thursday, for instance, a group from Pennsylvania came with hay and feed for the cattle.
“We’ve been helped by friends, family and strangers,” she said, “and we have to pay it forward .”