Farmers who raise cattle are losing money in areas from western Canada to the states of northern Mexico. They are having trouble finding enough food for their animals because of very dry conditions known as drought. Some farmers are buying feed for their animals from other parts of North America, but it is too costly for others.
Dianne Riding raises cattle in Lake Francis, Manitoba. She is a rancher(牧场主). She said that she recently had to sell 51 of her cattle, about 40 percent of the herd. Some of the cattle were young females who were supposed to give birth to many babies in the future. She said selling the young cows was “gut-wrenching”, or sad. She may get money now for selling the cattle, but her earnings will not be as high in years to come. “That’s your future,” she said about the young cows.
Other ranchers and cattle experts said if people like Riding keep selling their animals, the supply of beef will go down and the cost of meat in North America will go up. The drought is affecting areas throughout western North America. Fields where cows eat grass are dry. Fruit is not growing well in Washington. And California is suffering its worst wildfire season.
Climate scientists say global warming will make droughts happen more often. But some farmers think the current drought is part of a cycle that will end sometime soon. Even Riding, who had to sell her cows, thinks the drought will soon ease.
Gloria Montano Green works for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She said there is a clear link between the drought and climate change. “We’re seeing climate change,” she said. With dry fields, some farmers in western Canada brought in food for their cattle from Prince Edward Island, which is over 3,000 kilometers to the east.
Brian Perillat works for CanFax, a company that follows the market for cattle in Canada. He said in a normal year, ranchers cull about 10 percent of their older animals. But because of the drought, they will probably cull two or three times more than that. His company has no record of such big reductions in herds in one year going back to 1970.
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