--- title: The Texas Drought, a Cattle Sell-Off and the Cost of Your Hamburger | TIME description: There’s a massive sell-off of cattle in the dought-ridden and grass-deprived state of Texas, and it could affect the price of beef across the country canonical: https://time.com/video/8qRGEBSK/ og:title: The Texas Drought, a Cattle Sell-Off and the Cost of Your Hamburger og:description: There’s a massive sell-off of cattle in the dought-ridden and grass-deprived state of Texas, and it could affect the price of beef across the country og:url: https://time.com/video/8qRGEBSK/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8qRGEBSK/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Texas Drought, a Cattle Sell-Off and the Cost of Your Hamburger twitter:description: There’s a massive sell-off of cattle in the dought-ridden and grass-deprived state of Texas, and it could affect the price of beef across the country twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/8qRGEBSK/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # The Texas Drought, a Cattle Sell-Off and the Cost of Your Hamburger > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: The Texas Drought, a Cattle Sell-Off and the Cost of Your Hamburger [Watch (HLS stream): The Texas Drought, a Cattle Sell-Off and the Cost of Your Hamburger](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/8qRGEBSK.m3u8) (6:11)  _Published 2011-10-12. There’s a massive sell-off of cattle in the dought-ridden and grass-deprived state of Texas, and it could affect the price of beef across the country_ --- Jul 27, 2023 3:18 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Investors Are Selling Off Tech Stocks](/video/NudhJJWP/) ### Investors Are Selling Off Tech Stocks [Texas Mother Is Accused of Selling Her Young Son and Trying to Sell Two Infant Daughters](/video/c008tbC7/) ### Texas Mother Is Accused of Selling Her Young Son and Trying to Sell Two Infant Daughters [How California’s Drought Will Affect Your Wallet](/video/e4k4jpdG/) ### How California’s Drought Will Affect Your Wallet --- ## Transcript [ INAUDIBLE ] Business is booming at Glen Crain's Livestock Auction barn in Hondo, Texas. [ INAUDIBLE ] Here, cattle from around the typically lush Medina county are dropped off, sorted, and sold every Monday. [ INAUDIBLE ] [ SOUND ] Cows, steers, bulls, and calves. [ SOUND ] Are trotted through the auction pen in singles and pairs. With a quick glance, Prin, a veteran in the cattle business, prices them on the spot. 90. And the bidding begins. [ SOUND ] [ SOUND ] I nearly used up my hay on the ranger. Oh, maybe it's been lots more cattle than what we normally run. You know, that one week here, we started at 11 o'clock in the morning, got through at 4 o'clock the next morning, just selling the cattle. But good business for Crane is usually bad news for cattle farmers in Texas. The state's worst drought on record. Has left the ranches dry and the cows without food. So the rancher's are here to sell off their heards before it gets worse. There's no hanging around. The drought's really taking a toll on everybody. No! Help us. Help us. Please help us. I'm going to be honest with ya. If this is gonna to be a dry winter, I don't think there's gonna be hardly anything left in the [ INAUDIBLE ]. According to the Farm Service Agency, a branch of the US Department of Agriculture, [ SOUND ] A drastic drop in cattle here is a real concern that could have repercussions at dinner tables across the country. Six months from now, there's not gonna be as many cattle on the market going to sale, because they've all been dumped right now. There's gonna be a shortage of meat, and obviously prices are gonna go high for Your hamburger, your, you know, round steak, T- bones, and things like that. Oh, I'd have to say this is the worst I've ever been through with, we've been through some tough ones. [ SOUND ] Kelly Carol owns the ranch she grew up on a few miles out of town. He inherited the 400 acres from his father but. [ SOUND ] Hardly recognizes some parts of it. This parched crater was a pond Carroll grew up swimming in. [ SOUND ] In this harsh environment he now spends most of his free time tending to his cattle. With wife Joanne and son Bo. Well, you, you make a career out of this. I mean, just like, you guys putting money in an IRA or a, savings account, we put them into our cattle and our ranch So, we're just having to hold on, and, probably put, good money out for bad, but, [ INAUDIBLE ] situation where you have no other choice. 86 degrees, may be 100 by the end of the day. And it's mild what we've been. This year the town of Hondo has had over 80 days reach 100 degrees or more, and less than eight inches of rain fall compared to an annual average of about 30. Carol's ranch is bone dry. Normally this little patch that we're driving into now Maybe even knee deep in grass. Without growing gross, many ranchers in Texas have turned to hay as the main source of food for their cows. And it's a hot commodity right now, selling for more than double its usual price. [ NOISE ] We're feeding feed that comes out of New Mexico, Wyoming. Ten freight to get it here. [ SOUND ] And no we have never in our life time bought feed from anywhere other than our own county or most of the time it we raised it in our own backyard. Even if it rains tomorrow Carol says, the damage has been done. Many of his cows have been too weak to reproduce. Which means the effects of this drought will be felt for years. We've lost about, I would say 40 % of our cash crop. Our cows aren't breeding back there. They don't have the nutrition or diets that they need. [ NOISE ] Hyup! Carol does have drought insurance, but it only covers about a quarter of his feed bill. Hya! And even with the help, he hit a breaking point last week and decided to sell around 100 cows, most of his herd. [ SOUND ] You going to watch those cows tomorrow and see, make sure they do okay? I don't know what they'll bring. Eight to nine, I would think. Okay. Okay. Careen and his staff will add Carol's 100 head to another 600 or so on auction day. Crean says it's tapered off after a few weeks where they sold thousands. It seems like, in the last few weeks, everything just kind of mushroomed, you know. Too many cows everywhere, and they, they're stacking up, and they're taking money off the cows. But he's not quick to celebrate the recent boom in business. [ SOUND ]. He's afraid if the drought goes on much longer, there won't be any cattle left to sell next year. I think they're going to sell the cows until they can get down to nothing or it starts raining. I think my business is going to go down just like the cows are already going down. Even though cattle prices have dropped in Texas They're still reaching record highs in other states. Most of the buyers here today represent ranches and slaughterhouses from greener parts of the country. Well I buy for Oklahoma and Oregon right now. That has played to Carroll's advantage. I buyer from Wyoming bought most of his cows today. Probably about $ 200 off what they should have been, but it's something we can probably live with for today rather than feed them tomorrow. It's been a dismal year for Carol, but he has no plans to leave the business. I thought the cows did pretty good. They may be down to a few cows and a few bales of hay but he says he'll always be a cattle rancher. It's right in you. It's just something that you feel like you're made to do. And it's been a part of your life forever so you know, we'll buy them back some day. For Time Video, I'm Jacob Templin, in Hondo, Texas. 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