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Fresno County foothills and pastures are dry due to a lack of rain.
The rain normally helps grow natural grasses and plants which can sustain the cattle year round. But without the natural feed, some ranchers are selling off cattle much earlier than expected, or buying hay at about $225.00 a ton to feed their cattle.
"There are parts of these areas even with proper grazing it still looks like moonscape," said Ryan Jacobsen with the Farm Bureau. "There's nothing up there. The grass just hasn't been able to grow."
Randy Perry added, "It's been bad but we're really getting to the critical stage now where if it doesn't do something probably in the next two weeks to one month we'll see some major liquidation of cow numbers."
Fresno State beef cattle expert Randy Perry called the dry rangeland conditions the worst he's ever seen.
