This time of year, the fields in Goshen County, Wyo., should be lush and green. Instead, the grass is nowhere to be found — and neither is the water.
A historic drought stretching from Wyoming to Nebraska is pushing beef producers into some of the hardest decisions of their careers: sell the cattle they’ve spent generations building or hold on and hope the rain comes.
Torrington Markets: A Slow Season Turned Crisis
At Torrington Livestock Markets, the signs of the crisis are impossible to miss. The operation, co-owned by Lander Nicodemus and Chuck Petersen, typically runs one sale per week in May and June. This year, they’re holding two sales every week just to keep up with demand.
“May-June is probably our slowest and end of July would be our slow season,” Nicodemus says. “Last week we had 9,000 head of feeders. We’re continuing having sales two times a week, Wednesdays and Fridays.”
That figure represents nearly nine times the volume the market would typically handle this time of year. The latest USDA Crop Progress Report underscores the scale of the problem — 60% of the nation’s cattle inventory is currently in drought, 56% of hay is affected and only 29% of pastures were rated in good to excellent condition, one of the worst ratings for this time of year in the last decade.
Beyond Grass: The Critical Shortage of Stock Water
Petersen, who is 49, says the conditions are unlike anything he has seen in his lifetime.
“This last fall and winter of 2025-2026, I’ve never seen a more milder, drier winter in my whole life,” he summarizes. “It was pretty amazing, the lack of moisture, but yet also the super mild temperatures that we experienced here.”
The cattle primarily arriving at Torrington are coming from Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and western Nebraska — areas Petersen describes as some of the hardest hit in the U.S. But it isn’t just a lack of feed driving producers to market. For many mountain ranches, the problem is even more basic.
“The problem is drinking water for a lot of these ranches, actually,” Petersen stresses. “The cricks and springs that they rely on year-round for stock water are going completely dry.”
For many producers, selling cattle they’ve invested years — and in some cases generations — of work into is a gut-wrenching choice. Petersen says the emotional weight of that reality is not lost on him.
“Their cow herds are their livelihood,” he summarizes. “They’re around them every day, 365 days a year. A lot of operations have spent generations and generations improving their genetics and building a herd that is profitable for them, for their environment. And so, I think it’s really hard for them to try to pick and choose which animals can stay and which can go.”
Nicodemus adds many producers are still trying to hold on to their core cow herds, reluctant to fully disperse. But he believes a turning point is coming in mid-June.
“If we don’t see some significant moisture between now and then, I think we will see a lot of those big dispersals just come to town,” he says.
Nebraska’s Double Blow: Fire and Drought
In neighboring Nebraska, ranchers face a double blow: drought layered on top of devastating wildfires that swept through Garden County in March. Joe McGinley, a rancher and volunteer fire chief from the area, helped fight those blazes firsthand before turning his attention to the cattle crisis unfolding around him.
McGinley says the fire burned through most of the region’s summer grazing pastures, and without significant rain, the damage will be felt for years. Many of his neighbors have already shipped cattle to leased grass in South Dakota, Kansas and Missouri, and more are weighing their options daily.
“There’s a lot of short-term decisions being made for long-term problems,” McGinley summarizes. “Most people are married to their cows and sure don’t want to get rid of them.”
As time goes on and conditions fail to improve, McGinley expects the harder decisions to deepen across the region.
“As time goes by and conditions unfortunately don’t change, we’ll see the younger cows come to town, the heart of the herds, the dispersions,” he says.
The Silver Lining: A Historically Strong Market
Still, there is one thread of hope. The cattle market is historically strong right now. Petersen calls it “the one kind of silver lining” of the entire situation.
Petersen and Nicodemus say their market will keep adding sales to serve producers as needed. But the long-term outlook worries them. An aging ranch workforce, a shrinking cattle supply and a landscape too dry to recover quickly all point toward a prolonged struggle.
The Long-Term Impact on Herd Expansion
The drought is compounding an already fragile situation for the region’s cattle industry. National cattle inventory is at an all-time low and selling now only delays recovery further.
“You can’t rebuild in a drought,” Nicodemus says. “This just kicked that can down the road another year and I think probably makes it even worse. If they’re going to face the summer with no grass, I think they’ll come to town. It’ll be the end of them.”
“I think in our region anyway, expansion of this cow herd is still going to be a ways off — if ever — you know, if ever we see expansion,” Petersen says.
Despite it all, McGinley says he believes ranchers will find a way through.
“I know that every person’s situation is different and so the decisions they make, I hope they are right for them and can continue on in this,” McGinley summarizes. “It’s a hard industry, but it’s a great way of life.”
