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highplainsdem

(48,724 posts)
Mon Jan 30, 2012, 02:29 AM Jan 2012

The great northern migration -- of U.S. cattle

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/30/us-cattle-migration-idUSTRE80T07920120130


Reuters) - For more than a century, through a dozen dry spells when lakes disappeared and the land died, thousands of cows from the Swenson Land & Cattle Co have roamed the fields of Texas.

Yet the drought currently ravaging the southern Plains has done what the Dust Bowl could not: chased them off this land and driven them more than 600 miles north to Nebraska.

Now, as the worst drought in a century stretches into its second year, these ranchers and many of their peers are herding their animals in record numbers to the Cornhusker State and other points north, in search of grazing land that is not parched - a shift that is fueling a dramatic economic and cultural reshaping of the U.S. livestock industry.

-snip-

In cattle-car convoys that wind along routes cowboys used in the 1800s, this migration is also a stark illustration of the myriad threats facing the world's future food supply: intense competition for land; increasing demands on limited water resources; and the growing threat of volatile weather.

-snip-
6 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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The great northern migration -- of U.S. cattle (Original Post) highplainsdem Jan 2012 OP
eat less beef and none of this would be necessary nt msongs Jan 2012 #1
Interesting, the myriad ways climate change is re-shaping the way we live. dixiegrrrrl Jan 2012 #2
+1 xchrom Jan 2012 #3
This will put cattlemen and wheat growers in direct competition pscot Jan 2012 #4
Ah, competition - as in ... Nihil Jan 2012 #6
This may be good news for the Canadian cattle industry customerserviceguy Jan 2012 #5

dixiegrrrrl

(60,010 posts)
2. Interesting, the myriad ways climate change is re-shaping the way we live.
Mon Jan 30, 2012, 07:39 AM
Jan 2012

thanks for posting this article.

 

Nihil

(13,508 posts)
6. Ah, competition - as in ...
Tue Jan 31, 2012, 05:16 AM
Jan 2012

"Who will be the first to complain about the poisoning of it by the combination
of tar sand pipelines and natural gas extraction and demand that their profits
are subsidised by the government ahead of any plans to sort out drinking
water for the people"?

Oh I love it when a clusterf*ck comes together!

customerserviceguy

(25,183 posts)
5. This may be good news for the Canadian cattle industry
Mon Jan 30, 2012, 07:22 PM
Jan 2012

A lot of agriculture is going to move towards the poles over the coming years, as previously inhospitable areas become suitable for growing things that they couldn't sustain years earlier.

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