Drought has been one of the factors that have hindered herd expansion in the cattle industry.
Atmospheric scientist Matt Makens tells Brownfield while precipitation has helped improve conditions, it will likely be short-lived. “By later this year, La Niña is back and that means drought for a lot of central and southern U.S.,” he says. “You know what that has done historically, what hay has done the following year, and all of those things point to let’s not expand right now.”
He says there was optimism that the El Niño pattern that moved in last year would provide significant relief, but it hasn’t.
