As Mr. Price put it, “You’re now marketing the grass through the cow.”

For others, it is knowing the right moment to sell calves or to gamble on something called “rain insurance.” The cattle herd nationwide is at its lowest level in 60 years, and nowhere is that more apparent than in Texas, the nation’s largest cattle-producing state. The Texas inventory of cattle and calves was 11.3 million on Jan. 1, a decline of 5 percent from a year earlier and the lowest level since 1967, according to the Agriculture Department.

The state’s beef cattle inventory fell even more, to 4.02 million head, down 12 percent from 2012, when similarly precipitous declines occurred. The sharp contraction, brought on by two years of drought in Texas followed by a year of drought across the Great Plains that drove feed prices sky high, has left some wondering if the state will ever again have herds as large as it once boasted.

Last year, when the Texas A&M University extension service offered a series of educational programs called “Rebuilding the Beef Herd,” it had trouble attracting any interest. “It just kind of stagnated because it never did rain,” said Ron Gill, a professor and extension service specialist. “It was all about preparing for when things got better, and they just haven’t.”

The situation is so dire that several times during a drive around his ranch, tears sprang to Mr. Smith’s eyes as he spoke about the challenges he has faced maintaining not only his beef herd, which now stands at roughly 130 cows, but also some remaining dairy cows. That business, too, is no longer profitable.