Harvey’s toll on Texas’ $100 billion ag industry still unknown

Losses to Texas’ $100 billion agriculture industry had not even begun to be tallied Tuesday, with farmers and ranchers still unable to get out to find stranded livestock or survey how many acres of grain, rice and cotton was destroyed by Harvey’s once-in-a-millennium downpours. Texas A&M University agricultural economist David Anderson said it was too soon to even ballpark the monetary extent of the damages.“I haven’t even tried,” he said. “It’s going to be a big number.”Texas leads the nation in production of cattle, cotton, sheep and goats and hay, and it also produces a sizable amount of wheat and corn. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the 54 Texas counties declared a disaster area contain more than 1.2 million beef cows, or about 27 percent of the state’s herd. Anderson said that was a conservative census, as 14 of the counties only have estimates.