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CALDWELL -- Texas' drought is reaching historic proportions.
Exceptional, extreme and severe drought conditions blanket the entire state. Central Texas remains the epicenter of what has become a crippling situation for ranchers.
The drought's economic impact on Texas has already reached a staggering amount. Farmers and ranchers in the state have incurred nearly $1 billion in losses, according to the Texas AgriLife Extension.
Losses from drought include reduced income to ranchers and farmers and increased costs of feeding livestock.
Drought is silent, but its damaging effects are readily visible. Stock tanks sit dry or nearly dry across the state. Topsoil blows across pastures. Cattle in many counties only have dead grass or hauled-in hay and supplements to eat.
"Everybody is just about in the same shape. A lot of people are just about out of water," said Ken Tharp, who, with his wife, Windy, raises cattle east of Caldwell in Burleson County.
Recent rains received in the Brazos Valley did little to alleviate the situation. The area received about two inches of rain, state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said.
"This will provide a little shot in the arm to the grasses and forages, but at this point, it looks temporary," he said.
The area still has a 10-inch rain deficit.
"It's not likely that we'll get enough rain during the spring to end the drought, especially in the western portions of the Brazos Valley, which have been dry for a long time," Nielsen-Gammon said.
The Tharps normally run about 55 cows on their commercial cow-calf operation. Texas 21 splits the land. The road also serves as a divider for water sources.
Before the rains, two dry stock tanks sat north of Texas 21. They had been dry since fall. Nearby, a neighbor was hauling in water for his cattle.
Tharp said his land received 2.1 inches of rain. One of the stock tanks now has a puddle of water in it the size of a dinner plate, he said.
"It gets old looking at nothing but dry, brown grass or just dirt. I told somebody the other day that I think emotionally it's more of a strain on me than physically having to feed the cows," said Tharp, who retired from Alcoa in 1996.
South of Texas 21 are the Tharps' farmhouse and a stock tank with about 3 feet of water pooled in the bottom. Tharp has moved all their cattle to the home place.
"If I'm going to have to feed them, I might as well feed them close to home," he said.
Tharp said he's measured only 33/4 inches of rain this year. He acknowledges that he is still better off than some ranchers in the state.
He thinks the water could last until June if it doesn't rain. He does have well water nearby, if needed. The last time the home-place stock tank caught water was May, when 6.4 inches of rain fell.
"The first two weeks in May it rained over 6 inches, and that was pretty much it," Tharp said.
He said in 2008, he received 22.04 inches of rain, which is two-thirds of the normal rainfall.
Almost half his 2008 rainfall totals were received from January to May.
"It's not so much the amount, it's when it comes," Tharp said.
Rain didn't come in time for his summer hay meadows last year or fall-planted winter oat pastures to grow. He got only one hay cutting in May off one meadow. He's never even grazed cattle on the winter oat pastures he planted.
He has weaned some calves early and sold them. He's been through his herd twice, culling for older cows. He'll take a wait-and-see approach before he culls deeper into the herd.
"We tried to learn something in '96 when we got hit so hard [by drought]. I try to stock for the drought, and if we've got extra grass we try to bale it or do something else with it," Tharp said. "But you don't stock for this kind of drought, I guarantee it, because this is dry."
Tharp was a kid during the drought of the 1950s. His family raised cattle in northern Burleson County. He remembers moving cattle two or three times to water sources during that time.
"I guess every one you're in currently always seems the worst," he said.
Getting out of the cattle business is not an option for the Tharps. Windy Tharp is the fourth generation of the Duewall family to raise cattle on the land.
"We're not going to go out of the cow business. We may go down to what we can to survive with, but we're going to have something to come back with," Tharp said. "We'll buy some back and we'll keep some heifers. We've done it before several times."
For more than 50 years, the Marek family has raised commercial cattle in Burleson County.
Peggy Marek said it had been a year since they received an appreciable amount of rain. They are facing the same challenges every day as the Tharps -- dried-up water sources and dwindling hay supplies.
"We were in the drought of the '50s and it was bad, but I don't think it was as bad as this," Marek said. "I don't remember people being out of water like they are now."
Marek said cattle would remain a part of the landscape. They have no intention of selling out.
"I've always had the opinion you do the best you can with what you've got," she said.
Drought was the topic of conversation recently at the Caldwell Livestock Commission's weekly sale.
Rancher Tommy Tietjen of Caldwell, who runs more than 400 head of cows, said dried-up water sources posed the biggest problem for his operation.
Tietjen said he's feeding hay and providing mineral at least twice a week. He's been able to feed through the drought because of 2007's rains. That year, he cut and baled 1,500 round bales. Last year, he made 800 round bales. He's feeding 2007 hay now.
"Cows are at the hay bales the whole time. We have no standing grass left," he said.
Tietjen said he hasn't had to cull his herd yet but he will take a hard look at the number of replacement heifers he keeps. He usually keeps back 40 head.
"This year, maybe we'll keep 10," he said.
Tietjen received 21/2 inches of rain last week -- enough to keep him from having to pump water into stock tanks, but not enough to get him through the summer.
"Cattle are still wanting hay, and we're feeding plenty of hay. It doesn't seem like that is going to go away any time soon," he said.
Carl Herrmann, who, along with Jerry Armstrong owns the Caldwell Livestock Commission, said many ranchers are at the culling stage with mostly older cows.
Cows normally make up about 25 percent of the total head sold at the weekly sale. Cows are now about half of the total head sold.
Herrmann said if it doesn't rain in the next 30 days, some cattle operations could be facing liquidation.
Armstrong said: "It's tough. There's going to be a lot of people on the border of fixing to sell out."
He's concerned that for some older ranchers, the drought will tip the scales in favor of getting out of the cattle business. Younger ranchers also could find it economically harder to get back into business if they sell out.
"A lot of people could get out that won't come back in," Armstrong said.
Drought may be silent as it wreaks its devastation, but optimism could be heard in the words of the Burleson County ranchers. The rains and the slight green-up in grasses was good for everybody emotionally.
"We're very resilient as a group," Armstrong said. "As bad as it is, we always manage to make it through."
