APNewsBreak: Drought Costs Texas $8B in Ag Losses Agriculture officials say losses from Texas' historic drought are more than $2 billion more than previously thought. The Texas AgriLife Extension Service now estimates crop and livestock losses at $7.62 billion for 2011. The extension service's preliminary estimate of $5.2 billion in August already topped the previous record of $4.1 billion in 2006. Extension service spokesman Blair Fannin gave The Associated Press the data on losses Wednesday before it was publicly released. Texas has a long history of drought. Since 1998, it has cost the state's agriculture industry more than $14 billion. 2011 was the driest year in state history.