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This heat wave is officially one for the record books.Some people have already noticed the historic nature of the last 11 days of record breaking heat.But when they look back, they will discover something; we have seen something like this before.Nealy Barrett has seen a lot in 50 years of cattle farming, but this is a new one; his daughter just tossed out 50 pounds of food and the cattle stayed put underneath some shade trees.Even the least brightest of the animals knew already what the instruments told us; Thursday brought another hot, 100 degree day.At eleven days long, even a man who works outside can't remember a heat wave like it."I don't remember ever being up in the 100 something degrees. I just don't remember it being that hot," Barrett said.The National Weather Service says Montgomery sweated through three week long 100 degree periods in 1881, 1990, and one more:
"We had a drought in '54, but that was just peanuts compared to what this is," an 80 year old farmer remarked.His name is John but everybody calls him Bubba Trotman, and he's one of the biggest beef producers in this area. He says this is one of the worst times he can remember."People are having to sell their whole herds. They're having to sell their feeder cows and their mother cows because of this weather," said Trotman.But it may not be bad news for consumers.The latest numbers from ALFA show the price for better cuts of beef actually fell 19 cents a pound last month.The reason? All those southern farmers glutting the market with their beef, while at the same time Texas and the southwest is getting lots of rain.Back in Elmore County, Nealy Barrett finally got his cows to eat after waving the feed bag at them. But like many other farmers, he's thinking about selling his cattle.Bubba Trotman says consumers should enjoy those lower beef prices while they can. He says if Alabama cattlemen sell off much more, they'll have to buy more stock next year.If that happens, you may end up paying more at the market in the long run.The other factor that may drive that?Hay prices, which Trotman says have tripled in about two years because of the drought.
As in the days of Noah...
