Southeast drought hitting beef
By Tim Huber
Kentucky.com
An intense drought that scorched the Southeast this year is going to cost Americans at the meat counter.
Weather wiped out hay crops across the region, forcing cattlemen from Kentucky to Maryland and from West Virginia to Alabama to sell large numbers of current and future breeding stock this fall. The region produces some 30 percent of the calves sent to U.S. feedlots, and experts predict it will take three years or more for the nation’s beef supply to recover.
Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture doesn’t keep regional statistics, market reports for Southeastern states show higher numbers of cattle are going to market this fall.
