Texas Officials to Talk about Herd Rebuilding

LUBBOCK (AP/Staff) – Texas agriculture officials will travel the state in coming months to help ranchers wanting to rebuild their herds after the heavy selloffs in 2011, the state’s driest year on record. One of the early stops will be in East Texas. In a release Tuesday, the Texas AgriLife Extension service said the programs will include information on lending policies, balancing forage recovery with inventory recovery and the generational turnover in ranching. After many cattle producers got out of the business because of the historic drought, young people are being encouraged to get into ranching. Other sessions will address herd health and inventory flexibility in ranch operations. The programs begin in April. The first few are in Midland, Yoakum, Alice, Graham, Abilene and Athens.