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Drought conditions leaving many cattle producers in dire straits

Drought conditions continue to plague many parts of cattle country leaving cattle producers in dire straits.  And with little to no relief in sight for cattle producers across the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest, the head of R-CALF USA says a lot of producers have been forced to sell off their herds.

Bill Bullard tells Brownfield he continues to hear the same story from auction owners around South Dakota.  “We’ve got a lot of producers who have been suffering from severely depressed prices for a long time,” he says.  “And now to get hit with this unprecedented drought, it is just untenable.”

He says producers are finding it hard to hold on for another year.  “We’ve got a broken marketplace,” he says.  “And now we’ve got a broken marketplace compounded with high feed costs and drought.  And that is the recipe to disaster for many, many independent cattle producers and we’ve got to turn that around.”

AUDIO: R-CALF USA’s Bill Bullard on drought conditions