Tidy rows of pine trees grow where cattle once grazed through the rolling hills of East Texas.
Housing developments and lignite mines have swallowed prime pasture land.
Around Longview, cows and calves are dotting fewer landscapes, and local ranchers blame rising costs, fluctuating markets and changing lifestyles for pushing people from cattle production, a rural business with long ties to East Texas.
“The older generation is passing on, and the younger ones don’t pick it up,” said Byron Ford, a Hallsville rancher who runs the Longview Livestock Commission sale barn. “There’s not a lot of money in it, and it’s hard work.”
The number of cattle in the area has fallen by nearly half in the past three decades, but it’s hard to tell that on a Thursday in Longview. That’s when the livestock commission holds its weekly auction, where men in denim shirts and wide-brimmed hats still gather around the cafe at the sale barn just as they always have.
They chew on chicken-fried steak and shoot the breeze. Later, they’ll wander the catwalk high above the holding pens, inspecting the week’s offering. There will be breeding bulls, horses and goats, as well as heifers destined for somebody’s pasture and yearlings and worn-out mama cows destined for the feed lots and slaughter houses out west.
Among the onlookers will be only a handful of serious buyers. Though several East Texans still run large operations, many say they hold onto a few head of cattle as a hobby or for nostalgia. They’re just happy to break even on the endeavor.
“Most of our clients will be people with smaller herds. They’ve been in it forever and were raised in it,” Ford said. “It gets in you. People do it because they’ve always done it.”
Longview’s sale barn was built in the 1960s. There are other sale barns operating around East Texas, including ones in Carthage and Henderson. Ford expects that sales have slowed at all of the East Texas auction houses, and he said he wouldn’t be surprised if some begin to close in the years to come.
“If our numbers don’t pick up, everybody can’t stay in it,” he said.
A small-timer’s habit
These days, most small-time ranchers hold other jobs to pay the bills.
Among them is Danny Jordan, who retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture after 36 years and now runs a small herd and hauls cattle for a rural sale barn on the weekends.
“Back when I was a kid, back in the ’50s, that was when East Texas was fencing up, and my granddad had a few old cows. It wasn’t nothing because everybody had a few head of cattle,” he said. “Now it has evolved over the years that we have either got some big operators or we’ve got a lot of small operators like me that have a town job to support their habit.”
In the early part of the 20th century, Jordan said, many rural East Texans grew crops for their livelihood. Following World War II, they converted to cattle production. They didn’t have massive spreads like those found in cattle-producing areas of South and West Texas.
“The problem over here in East Texas is everybody’s got 80 acres of land,” he said. “We don’t have any real big landowners. As the cattle industry evolved over the years to better types of cattle, better breeding and better feeding, we had to expand or go out, and there was just so many people here, and I’m exactly what they are.
“Everybody had 75 to 100 acres, and it wasn’t enough to run cattle full time,” he said. “There wasn’t enough money there so they had to go to town and get a job.”
Jordan runs around 60 head of cattle on 92 acres in Laneville.
“I’m so small-time it’s ridiculous, but that’s what I want to do,” he said. “I don’t want to go fishing.”
Fewer cattle, more people?
The USDA figures that show a declining cattle population in East Texas might not tell the complete story, according to Greg Clary, an economist at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center in Overton.
“There may be less cattle, but that doesn’t mean there are less people involved,” he said. “We have so many small herds in East Texas and across the South, there’s just a lot of people that have some cows.”
Clary is among several Texas A&M experts who are leading a “grazing school” this week at the Overton facility, in which greenhorns learn about forage management, genetics and other basics of livestock production. Clary, who is also chairman of the Texas Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, said some small producers still make money from their cattle.
“The possibility is there,” he said. “There are more people that are not making money than are, but there are some that do make money. But you have to really pay attention to all the management aspects of it and keep track of what’s going on from a production standpoint and a cost standpoint.”
Back at the sale barn
Before Thursday’s auction began in Longview, a long line of trucks waited to unload their livestock for the noon sale. Around 600 head of cattle were expected to pass through the auction gates that day, and Art Dudley was next in line to drop off a dozen head.
Dudley, a full-time cattle producer in the Henderson area, said he was just doing what he has always done.
“It’s what I like,” he said. “I don’t want to work for anybody else.”
3,089 responses to “Cattle ranchers dwindling in East Texas”
Hey would you mind letting me know which web host you’re working with? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different internet browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most. Can you suggest a good internet hosting provider at a honest price? Cheers, I appreciate it!|
Porn
Sex
Porn
Porn
Scam
Porn site
Sex
Thanks for your personal marvelous posting!
I genuinely enjoyed reading it, you might be a great author.
I will remember to bookmark your blog and will eventually come back from now on. I want to encourage you to continue your
great work, have a nice weekend!
Porn site
Pornstar
I’m amazed, I must say. Seldom do I come across a blog that’s both educative and amusing, and without a doubt, you’ve hit the nail on the head. The problem is something that not enough men and women are speaking intelligently about. Now i’m very happy that I found this during my hunt for something relating to this.|
Pornstar
Buy Drugs
I am extremely impressed with your writing skills and also
with the layout on your weblog. Is this a paid theme or did you
customize it yourself? Either way keep up the excellent quality writing, it’s rare to
see a great blog like this one today.
Viagra
Scam
Sex
Greetings from Colorado! I’m bored at work so I decided to check out your website on my iphone during lunch break. I love the information you provide here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m amazed at how fast your blog loaded on my phone .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyways, very good blog!|
Buy Drugs
Way cool! Some very valid points! I appreciate you writing this post and the rest of the site is also very good.|
Porn
Excellent post. I was checking constantly this blog and I’m impressed! Extremely helpful info specially the last part 🙂 I care for such information much. I was looking for this certain information for a long time. Thank you and best of luck.
Porn
It’s truly very complex in this full of activity life to listen news
on TV, thus I only use the web for that purpose,
and obtain the most recent information.
I have been exploring for a little for any high-quality articles or blog posts on this kind of area . Exploring in Yahoo I at last stumbled upon this web site. Reading this information So i?m happy to convey that I’ve a very good uncanny feeling I discovered just what I needed. I most certainly will make sure to don?t forget this site and give it a glance on a constant basis.
Porn site
One other important aspect is that if you are a senior, travel insurance for pensioners is something you need to really take into consideration. The more mature you are, greater at risk you are for making something negative happen to you while in most foreign countries. If you are definitely not covered by some comprehensive insurance coverage, you could have many serious challenges. Thanks for giving your suggestions on this blog.
Scam
Viagra
Charleston web design
Love how simple you made cross-chain transfers look.
Thanks for making DeFi less intimidating!
Viagra
Sex
Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of any widgets I could add to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates. I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time and was hoping maybe you would have some experience with something like this. Please let me know if you run into anything. I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new updates.|
Pornstar
Porn
Buy Drugs
You really make it appear so easy together with your presentation however I to find this matter to be really one thing that I believe I would by no means understand. It seems too complicated and extremely wide for me. I’m having a look forward in your next publish, I will attempt to get the grasp of it!|
Sex
Porn site
Porn
Porn
Thanks for sharing your knowledge on this topic. It’s much appreciated.
Buy Drugs
Good day! Do you know if they make any plugins to help with Search Engine Optimization? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good gains. If you know of any please share. Kudos!
Porn
I have noticed that in cameras, extraordinary devices help to {focus|concentrate|maintain focus|target|a**** automatically. The actual sensors associated with some camcorders change in in the area of contrast, while others employ a beam of infra-red (IR) light, specially in low light. Higher spec cameras occasionally use a mix of both programs and might have Face Priority AF where the digicam can ‘See’ a face while keeping focused only in that. Many thanks for sharing your thinking on this site.
Thanks for your valuable post. In recent times, I have come to understand that the symptoms of mesothelioma are caused by the actual build up connected fluid involving the lining of the lung and the chest cavity. The sickness may start within the chest spot and spread to other areas of the body. Other symptoms of pleural mesothelioma cancer include weight loss, severe respiration trouble, fever, difficulty swallowing, and bloating of the face and neck areas. It should be noted that some people existing with the disease don’t experience just about any serious signs at all.