Drought forces cattle farmers to sell off part of herd - KFVS12 News & Weather Cape Girardeau, Carbondale, Poplar Bluff

Drought forces cattle farmers to sell off part of herd

Posted: Updated:
Todd Tumminia - bio | email
With sales of cattle doubled from last year, more farmers are saying goodbye to portions of their herd. With sales of cattle doubled from last year, more farmers are saying goodbye to portions of their herd.
The USDA estimated that the price of beef will rise as much as 5% next year, more than any other food group. The USDA estimated that the price of beef will rise as much as 5% next year, more than any other food group.
JACKSON, MO (KFVS) -

No rain means no hay. No hay leaves cattle farmers looking to sell.

"I'm here to sell cattle because we didn't get enough hay to feed them this winter," Raymond McCrite, a cattle farmer from Tamms, said. "We had one piece of small acres that made 10 bales of hay. This year it made six in three cuttings.

That brought McCrite to Fruitland Livestock Inc. Tuesday to sell 24 cattle and he's not alone.

"For July, last year we sold 750 head," Neal Franke with Fruitland Livestock Inc. said. "This year we sold 1,900 head in July."

With sales of cattle doubled from last year, more farmers are saying goodbye to portions of their herd.

The surprising part is prices remain high.

"A lot of times when you have to sell the cattle it's cheap because there's too many of them," Franke said. "We are just fortunate that not the case this time."

 

And for how this affects you the buyer, the USDA estimated that the price of beef will rise as much as 5% next year, more than any other food group.

But farmers were quick to point out they aren't seeing any of that.

Copyright 2012 KFVS. All rights reserved.