Cows follow rancher Jimmy Atlas' truck as he and his wife make the rounds feeding their cattle in Grandview, Texas. Atlas normally gives his herd hay he has grown himself, but months of drought have parched his land and forced him to buy it at higher prices.

GRANDVIEW, Texas — As the hay-filled pickup turns onto the gravel road by the parched pasture that hasn't been green since spring, the cows get up and start running behind the truck. They know it's dinnertime.

Rancher Jimmy Atlas tosses the hay into a large feed compartment and the cows gobble it up. There's hardly any grass left in the field since the drought hit last summer, even drying up a couple of his ponds, so the animals used to grazing when hungry are about 50 to 100 pounds underweight.

Atlas, 54, usually grows wheat and oats to help feed his Hereford cattle and to sell for extra income, but the crops wilted in the heat. Like many other ranchers, he's been forced to buy hay — spending about $12,000 — but with a statewide shortage and high prices to match he's had to sell about a third of his herd of 150.

"This is the first time I can remember we didn't have grain growing," said Atlas, a second-generation farmer who has about 1,000 acres in Grandview, 35 miles southeast of Fort Worth. "This is the worst I've seen."

Texas agriculture has suffered an estimated $1.5 billion in losses due to drought conditions since last year. There was no winter forage, and only half of the state's 2005 hay crop was harvested.

The average price for hay in Texas was $91 per ton in December and $97 per ton in January, up from $74 and $69 per ton for those months the previous years, respectively, said Beverly Boyd, a Texas Department of Agriculture spokeswoman.

"It's economics 101: small supply, big demand. It's going to shoot prices up," Boyd said. "These are producers that have held on, and some are having to reduce their herds. There are some tough decisions being made around kitchen tables."

Ranchers are so desperate to find hay that the agriculture department's hay hot line has been flooded with about 80 to 100 calls a week since early January. The hot line, set up in 1998 to connect hay buyers and sellers from across the United States, usually receives a couple of calls a week, she said.

While farmers can get hay outside Texas — the department's Web site lists more than 20 states — transportation costs become an issue.

In the Texas Panhandle, Ty Williams' wheat crop didn't grow last fall. He borrowed about $20,000 from the bank to pay for extra hay and feed. He also sold 200 of his Angus calves, getting a good price for them, about $1.25 a pound. He also decided not to buy 200 calves that he normally would have last fall.

"It's just part of ranching. If you're in it long enough, you've just got to ride it out and know that it will rain sooner or later," said Williams, a fourth-generation rancher. "Hopefully, you've got a good banker who'll stay with you."

At his land in Grandview, Atlas is cautiously optimistic. The area got some much-needed rain the past two weekends, watering the wheat he and his wife planted recently, but the ground must have a lot more moisture in the next few weeks for the crop to grow.

Atlas, who works a second job at a steel plant, and his wife Claudia say the drought won't drive them out of business, no matter how bad it gets.

"We love doing what we do," Claudia Atlas said. "You have to love this to do it."