SAN ANGELO, Texas — Every week the Producers Livestock Auction takes place and every week cattle come in droves to be sold. However lately, the cattle coming in to the market, are smaller than in years past. This is due to the consistent drought in the area.

One manager at Producers Livestock Auction, Benny Cox says, “When you’re under drought situations like we’ve been so many times it seems like in the last three years, people are forced to do things that they don’t normally do. We actually sold lots of calves last year that weighed in the 350 to 450 pound raise that would not have been sold until they weigh 600 to 650.”

The 2022 drought, put that in combination with previous drought years, it leaves forage struggling to grow, in turn making less food for cattle.

Cox says, “Maybe five to six months ago, they were recording, you know, reporting 62% of the United States is in some state stage of drought or another and it hadn’t been very long ago; It could still be today 50% of the the US drought situation. That’s forced people to sell a lot of livestock.”

The recent drought is being compared to the drought of 2011 in the eyes of cattle producers.

“It was reported that 2011 was a 200 year drought for this area. It was devastating. And a lot of livestock left this part of the world…I’ve talked to a lot of people and they insisted that most people insisted that it was tougher on them this year, this summer than it was 2011,” Cox tells us.

To see more about the cattle market and learn about the Livestock auction, visit http://www.producersandcargile.com/