Nearly three quarters of farmers are now saying that they are being severely hurt from this year’s drought according to a new survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation, forcing many of them to destroy crops and forgo planting certain crops for this year, as well as selling off cattle earlier than expected.
This year’s drought conditions are taking a harder toll than last year’s, as 37% of farmers said they are plowing through and killing existing crops that won’t reach maturity because of dry conditions. That’s a jump from 24% last year, according to the survey.
“The effects of this drought will be felt for years to come, not just by farmers and ranchers but also by consumers. Many farmers have had to make the devastating decision to sell off livestock they have spent years raising or destroy orchard trees that have grown for decades,” said Zippy Duvall, AFBF president.
Farmers are now being required to reduce their herd by as much as 50% in response to this years drought.
“We haven’t had this kind of movement of cows to market in a decade, since 2011, which was our last really big drought,” said David Anderson, a professor of Agricultural Economics at Texas A&M told CNN last month.
Over the last 18 months I have constantly warned that inflation is going to get out of control. We were already struggling to keep up with demand and it looks like food inflation is going to get significantly worse over the coming months.
“In general, the outlook for the 2022 crop volume is more pessimistic than a month ago and much more than two months ago,” a July report from The Almond Board of California notes. The key culprits according to the report were drought, low water supply, and the removal of orchards.
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