Texas ranchers may have lost tens of millions of dollars worth of cattle in Harvey

Hurricane Harvey devasted Texas. Texas is the nation's largest producer of cattle. One in four beef cows are in Texas. The Texas agriculture officials believe that they have lost millions of dollars in the cattle industry due to the aftermath of Harvey. Thousands of cows died during and after the storm. Before the storm Texas was home to 1.2 million cattle. The storm has not only wiped out a massive amount of cattle but as well as all of the ranches. Thus ranchers have lost their "product" and their place of operation. For a rancher, one can get insurance on their herd, but many don't because of the high price. If a rancher's whole herd drowned then they are out thousands of dollars. This puts a lot of cattle businesses or slaughterhouses in danger of taking a huge loss or even going bankrupt. Even though there's a extreme loss of supply now in the meat industry, economists don't expect a rise in meat prices, because the cattle on the east coast especially Texas are sent there to grow into adults then they are sent to the slaughterhouse. Thus inferring that there's enough cattle elsewhere in the U.S. not to effect the price.

I believe that the devastation of the ranches will cause many individuals financial stress and because there are so many people involved in one. It will effect the overall unemployment rate because it will take a while to have pastures grow back to be ready for the cattle to feed. There's going to be numerous people out of work until a ranch is fully functioning again. Also for ranchers that lost there whole herds they have to be able to front money in order to gain a new herd.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2017/09/08/texas-ranchers-may-have-lost-tens-millions-dollars-worth-cattle-in-harvey.html