Cow Skulls Pile Up As Drought Grips Argentina: Lack of rain turns much of the country's farmland into a dust bowl

CNBC News
Cow skulls pile up as drought grips Argentina
By: The Associated Press
23 Jan 2009 06:02 PM ET

STROEDER, Argentina - Skeletons of livestock are piling up in the scorching sun of the Southern Hemisphere's summer as the worst drought in a generation turns much of Argentina's breadbasket into a dust bowl.

The nation's farm sector stands to lose $5 billion this year alone — a huge blow to the economy of Argentina, a top world exporter of soy, corn, wheat and beef — as well as to the government of President Cristina Fernandez, which faces billions of dollars in debt payments this year.

Wheat fields that once supplied flour for pasta-loving Argentines now resemble deserts, and spiny thistles are all that survive on cattle ranches in southern Buenos Aires province.

Nothing edible grows, said Hilda Schneider, a 65-year-old rancher who has lost nearly 500 cows to starvation.

"With the situation we're in now, without any harvest, there's nothing to do," said Schneider, one of 2,000 residents in Stroeder, a farming village suffering its worst drought since the 1930s. "We try to save the animals, which is the only thing we have left."

National disaster?

Elbio Madarieta's once-fertile 12,000-acre ranch outside Stroeder is now an arid plain, scattered with the remains of the 900 cattle he lost last year — 25 percent of his herd. The wind kicks up of clouds of dust, and not a stalk of wheat can be seen, let alone anything green for grazing.

The 56-year-old farmer and agronomist figures it will take five years after rains return for the soil to recuperate lost moisture and nutrients. Until then, he'll have to sell the cows he's managed to keep alive on costly feed, and restoring the herd won't be easy, since malnourished cows are less likely to reproduce.