Industries of all kinds are waiting with bated breath to see whether a looming railroad worker strike can be averted -- and that includes farming and ranching.
Glenn Albritton, who owns Jeterville, a farm that extends into both Tarrant and Wise counties, says if railroad workers go on strike at 12:01 Friday morning, things that he needs for his farm that are already in short supply will be even more so.
And it will cost him a lot more money to get those items to his farm.
"It's going to make it more costly because it's going to have to go by truck," says Albritton, "and there's enough stuff on the highway now that they just can't keep up with it. (A lot) of the wheat and the sorghum is transported by rail, and it's a lot more cost-efficient to transport these products by rail than it is by truck for sure."
Albritton says due to the drought, he has had to get a lot of the feed for his cattle from out of state.
"With the drought in Texas, lots of our food sources for our cattle (are) coming from out of state, because we don't have it here in the state because of the drought," says Albritton.
Albritton says if a rail workers' strike disrupts his business, there's not a whole lot he can do about it, besides rolling with the punches.
"You can stockpile stuff," says Albritton, "but a lot of the stuff that you stockpile has got a shelf date of about 60 to 90 days."
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