Drought and Cattle: Implications for Ranchers

Cortney Cowley, Jacob Dice and David Rodziewicz

No RWP 23-06, Research Working Paper from Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City

Abstract: Drought has occurred with greater intensity and frequency in many areas of the United States in recent years. Despite the growing concern surrounding the impacts of drought on the agricultural sector, few studies have quantified the impact of drought on the cattle industry. In this paper, we estimate the impacts of drought on cattle herd management, hay production, hay prices, and farm income in the United States from 2000 to 2022. Our results indicate that drought negatively impacts hay production and results in higher hay prices. Drought also contributes to herd liquidation and is correlated with lower farm incomes. As drought intensity increases, we find some evidence of reduced average herd sizes (liquidation). As herd size declines, revenues temporarily increase, which could be due to selling larger quantities of market and breeding stock. Overall, drought has a temporary positive effect on rancher revenues, but a negative effect on earnings.

Keywords: drought; agriculture; cattle prices (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q10 Q13 Q15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26
Date: 2023-06-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr and nep-env
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedkrw:96488

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DOI: 10.18651/RWP2023-06

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