Cattle Headed for Wetter Pastures; Out-of-State Shipments Up 160% This Year
FORT WORTH - This week, rancher Donnell Brown will do something he never thought his family's spread would consider.
The 106-year-old R.A. Brown Ranch will ship hundreds of beefcows, bred heifers and bulls 1,300 miles to Montana.
Like a latter-day version of the 19th-century cattle drives by Charles Goodnight and Jesse Chisholm, tens of thousands of dogies are moving north.
But these are not lean longhorn steers hoofing it across the Red River under the watchful eyes of saddle-sore, dollar-a-day cowboys and ending up at a slaughterhouse gate. Rather, they are expensive breeding stock being driven in heavy cattle trailers at a trucking rate of $3.75 a mile toward rain-fed pastures. Many may eventually return to Texas.
Dwindling water supplies and parched range caused by the state's devastating drought are forcing Brown and such large, storied ranches as the Spade, Moorhouse, Swenson and the 6666 to move a good portion of their seed stock.
"Anybody I've met, no matter the age, says this is the worst they've seen," said Joe Leathers, general manager of the 6666. "This is historical. We have a dirt [water] tank built in the 1950s, and it's never been dry. It's bone-dry now."
The ranch had sent yearling calves out of state in the past but, like the R.A. Brown operation and others, "never mother cows before," Leathers said.
The move preserves years of costly genetics and allows damaged pastures to heal. The sheer cost - about $4,800 to get 48 bred heifers to Montana - has put this survival strategy beyond the reach of most Texas and Oklahoma spreads. Only the biggest have the resources for the diesel-powered bovine exodus.
Dennis Braden of the Swenson Ranches of Stamford estimates that 10,000 head have been sent north by the big spreads.
In search of grass
Based on health certificates issued, Texas Animal Health Commission figures show that shipments of breeding cows out of state during the first seven months of 2011 increased 160 percent from the same period last year. And in August, the numbers soared to 24,330 from 3,815 for the same month in 2010, said Terry Hensley, the commission's assistant executive director. The statistics don't make clear whether the cattle were sold or kept by the originating Texas operation because the consignee isn't necessarily the owner, Hensley said.
A few months ago, managers of the large spreads met at the Tongue River Ranch near Paducah and decided to send a scouting party composed of Leathers and Braden to identify potential deals for its informal group. In the ensuing scramble, ranches leased pastures or made arrangements to maintain cattle in Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Montana.
"We've leased land, split calf crops with people - some just provide the care. One deal has a bonus if the calf crop goes above a certain percentage," said John Welch, CEO of the Lubbock-based Spade Ranches. "We've moved quite a few cattle north - as far as Montana and also Wyoming and Colorado - where we've found grass."
Dustin Oedekoven, South Dakota's state veterinarian, said his jurisdiction received 19,800 Texas cattle between June 20 and Aug. 14 compared with 2,200 last year. Those apparently include cattle bought by local ranchers.
Wyoming was the destination for 10,500 Texas cattle as well as 2,750 sheep from July 1 through mid-September, said Robert Meyer, Wyoming's assistant state veterinarian. "That's definitely an increase, and certainly a large percentage of those cattle have come because of the drought in Texas," Meyer said.
Reductions in herds
Most operations, big and small, have reduced the size of their herds. Those without resources to shift cattle out of state have culled deeper, said Troy Moore, owner of the Stephenville Cattle Co., a livestock auction. Moore said he acquired cattle from small ranchers unable to maintain their herds and sold them last to operations in Missouri and Minnesota.
The Swenson Ranches sent 350 cattle to Wyoming on Tuesday. In all, it will shift 1,200 head there and to Nebraska, said Braden, general manager of the operation, founded in 1854.
"Whenever Texas greens back up, there's no telling what those cattle would be worth," he said in an interview from Stamford, north of Abilene.
Anderson, the extension economist, told the Star-Telegram that the state's beef cattle inventory has dropped 600,000 because of drought. That represented 11 percent of the 5.4 million head count Jan. 1, which doesn't reflect this year's calf crop.
Not being sent north are first-calf heifers and cows that would be considered old next year. The latter will be sold next spring if the drought continues, Leathers said. Those sent to Nebraska and elsewhere may stay a year. "I've gotten three- to five-year leases so, if the relationships are right, we'll just renew the leases."
It may take two or three years for his parched rangeland to recover, Leathers said.
"If we get them off the country and we do get rain, we'll recover quicker. It's about being good stewards of the land."
