Drought impacting eastern Oklahoma ranchers

Nobody understands the lack of rain better than eastern Oklahoma ranchers. <br/><br/>Near Muskogee, many folks say it's the worst drought they've seen in their lifetimes. Larry Leatherman is

Thursday, December 22nd 2005, 10:03 am

By: News On 6

Nobody understands the lack of rain better than eastern Oklahoma ranchers.

Near Muskogee, many folks say it's the worst drought they've seen in their lifetimes. Larry Leatherman is helping truck water in to his friend's ranch to keep his cattle from dying. But even with 6,000 gallons per truckload, it doesn't go very far.

â€œThey require anywhere from 15 to 25 gallons every day, depending on the time of year per animal, so if you have a thousand animals, it doesn't take too long, you've got 15 to 25,000 gallons of water that you have to have every day."

Leatherman says he and other ranchers are spending hundreds, even thousands of dollars to buy water or truck it in.

He says they're pushing to get FEMA to declare the county a disaster area.