Wildfires, Drought, and Hay Bales
Every day for the past month or so I see a truck with a
trailer hauling round bales of hay all heading west. Wildfires in western Texas
have forced ranchers to board their cattle. Drought has limited the amount of
natural feed available and so the farmers and ranchers of southeast Texas are
donating hay.
After Hurricane Ike, the pastures of southeast Texas were
poisoned by the influx of salt water. Ranchers of west Texas sent hay to feed
the cattle here while the pastures were purged by rainwater and time and
returned to normal forage status. And so now, ranchers here are baling up hay
in fields and places that have never been cropped and trucking it all west.
It is one of those quiet things that are just done—without fanfare.