Daniel Sinton’s family has raised cattle on their 18,000-acre ranch outside Paso Robles, California, for 140 years. But he likes to say he’s in the grass growing business.

“When you get so little rain, we’re not able to grow grass and we’re not able to feed the cattle. That means we ended up having to sell them off,” Sinton told CBS News. “We sold off about 40% of the cattle this last year.”

Putting steaks on plates has gotten more difficult, with 87% of the West currently in at least moderate drought. Industry analysts say a majority of California ranchers have had to sell at least some of their cattle because of the drought.