Politico reports that more than 1.2 million beef cows are raised in the 54 Texas counties that have been declared disaster areas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. That represents about 27 percent of the state’s herd, said David Anderson, a livestock economist at Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.
“There were people who could move their livestock out of the path of the storm, or move them to higher ground," Anderson said. "But in some cases, there may not have been high enough ground to go to, and there also wasn't much time between reports that the storm was coming and when it picked up. It happened so fast."