WICHITA, Kan. -- Years of drought are reshaping the U.S. beef industry with feedlots and a major meatpacking plant closing because too few cattle are left in the United States to support them.
Some feedlots in the nation's major cattle-producing states have already been dismantled, and others are sitting empty. Operators say they don't expect a recovery anytime soon, with high feed prices, much of the country still in drought and a long time needed to rebuild herds.The closures are the latest ripple in the shockwave the drought sent through rural communities. Most cattle in the U.S. are sent to feedlots for final fattening before slaughter.The dwindling number of animals is also hurting meatpackers, with their much larger workforces. For consumers, the impact will be felt in grocery and restaurant bills as a smaller meat supply means higher prices.Owner Bob Podzemny has been taking apart the 32,000-head Union County Feed Yard near Clayton, N.M.It closed in 2009 when a bank shut off its operating capital in the midst of the financial crisis, and Podzemny said he doesn't see reopening after struggling through Chapter 11 bankruptcy."There just are not that many cattle in this part of the country no more, and it is not profitable to bring them in and feed them, so it is shut down," he said.Texas, the largest beef-producing state, has been particularly hard hit with a historic drought in 2011 from which it still hasn't fully recovered."Most of the bad news is in Texas," said Dick Bretz, an Amarillo broker who specializes in selling feed yards and other agribusinesses. "That is where I see most of the empty yards, that is where I see most of the interest in selling yards and where I see the least interest in buying yards."He recently dismantled a 7,000-head feed yard in Hereford for a new owner who bought it for the land, not the business.The previous owner lost the property to foreclosure, and the facility was in very poor condition and would have cost too much to repair, he said.When corn prices first spiked to $8 a bushel nearly four years ago, about 70 big feed yards went up for sale in the High Plains feeding area, which comprises Texas, Kansas, Colorado and Nebraska, Bretz said. Today, 10 to 15 feed yards are for sale in the region, mostly in Texas.Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
