The Saskatchewan Cattlemen's Association has written to the Province's Agriculture Minister David Marit calling for more support for the beef industry.

Over the last few weeks the SCA held town hall meetings in various locations to talk about the impact of the drought and producer needs, those meetings attracted well over 400 producers.

SCA Chair Keith Day says they heard numerous concerns about current programs.

"Well, it became pretty obvious it came up at every meeting that our insurance programs aren't quite doing what was hoped they would do. I think there's room for improvement with the forage insurance and any type of disaster relief type of program. That became pretty clear after the meetings."

He says the ongoing drought is having a major impact on operations with many producers reducing their herds in order to try to make it through, adding in some cases producers are reducing their herd by 75 per cent.

"There's a number that most producers get to. You can't go below that and still operate and still pay the bills. There's people struggling to hold on to that level in places and there's some people that just can't stay there. They're thinking about having a complete dispersal and maybe trying to get back into the business once conditions improve."

Day says Saskatchewan's beef herd is at risk, something needs to be done to keep the industry alive and young producers in the business.

To see SCA Chair Keith Day's letter to Agriculture Minister David Marit click here.