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Drought conditions impact students in agriculture organizations

Charmayne Persall has been with Lehman H. Feeders for over five years. She said this year, prices on feed are higher than she's ever seen.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Students in agriculture organizations are gearing up for the season, but they are facing a challenging that is becoming wide-spread across the farming industry.

Charmayne Persall has been with Lehman H. Feeders for over five years. She said this year, prices on feed are higher than she's ever seen. 

"For instance, I have a bag of feed that I'm selling for $26, someone else was selling it for $32.99," Persall said. 

Persall adds that the store is trying to offset some of those additional costs by canceling out third parties.

"Because that's going to add more price to the bag. I don't want to do that because it's got to be affordable this year," Persall said. 

Her store is trying to make it affordable, specifically for students who are taking part in agriculture.

"The USDA is estimated that since the beginning of the year, we've seen a 2% loss in the overall size of our cattle population," said Nathan Atkinson, Vice President for Texas FFA.

Atkinson is aware of the drought impact across the board.

"We're seeing it on the large scales, and like you said trickling down to our livestock show participants. Price of feeds rate is going up," Atkinson said. 

However, he said he believes facing the uncontrollable challenge now will prepare those in the organization for their future. 

"You're expecting things to go up and down and things are never consistent," Atkinson said. "So learning how to deal with that at an early age and to make that budget, to stick to that budget, to raise that project as best you can and make as much money on it to fund next year's project. We can start building that at a young age." 

For those who may have trouble with funding this year, Atkinson said to remember there are other ways to get involved without raising an animal. 

"Start getting involved in other essays like placement, which can let you get a job and use that as your essay. There's different ways to get involved," Atkinson said.

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