By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Disturbing images emerged out of the southwest corner of Kansas earlier this week as several thousand head of cattle died, reportedly due to extreme weather conditions. Ranchers are not required to report the dead cattle, so estimates of the carcasses range from 2,000 all the way up to 10,000.
Temperatures had been relatively mild around the state until June 11, when the thermometer began climbing towards the century mark. Not only did it remain there for several days, but warm evenings and humid conditions provided little reprieve for the animals.
"It's a unique combination of the temperature, the humidity, the wind, and also solar radiation, meaning cloud cover," said Brandon Depenbusch, vice president of cattle operations at Innovative Livestock Services. "If you get all three of those in the wrong combination, it's hard on people. We can only imagine how hard it is on animals out in nature.
"This year, in that particular part of the state, they had just a bad combination of high humidity, high temperature, no cloud cover, and very little wind. It resulted in a pretty tragic scenario."
ILS has feed yards throughout Central Kansas and Nebraska, and Depenbusch said animal safety strategies vary per location. However, there are some common ways to protect the animals during times of high heat.
"We have actual sprinklers within the pens," Depenbusch said of some yards. "We can turn them on and sprinkle the cattle and get them a little wet. Most importantly, we get the soil wet, which cools it down a little bit.
"Another is we'll deploy some bedding, so wheat straw or corn stalks to put on the pen surface. It's amazing what that does. People say that doesn't make much sense, but if you take a temperature gun and shoot it at the bare ground, it could be 30-40 degrees hotter than on the bedding. We'll roll out the bedding so they can lay on it or stand on it. It basically minimizes the solar radiation that bounces back off the ground."
Something as simple as providing shade for the animals can make a big impact, and some yards utilize mobile water trucks to hose down the animals.
"The main thing is you want to make sure you have plenty of clean water for the animals," Depenbusch said. "With all those intervention strategies, when the conditions get so bad, it's just really tough on man and beast."
There are obvious financial losses with so many head of cattle dying unexpectedly, but Depenbusch said the pain goes beyond money.
"My heart breaks for those guys and gals out there," he said. "As the livestock industry, we're caregivers. Our team wakes up every day to go to work to take care of animals. When you have a tragic event like this, it just really tears on peoples' emotions."
While this week's loss is uncharacteristic for the industry, Depenbusch said it should not carry over into grocery store and restaurant prices.
"It's such a small, localized event," he said. "It is horrendous to see, it is tragic to see, it's unbelievable to see, but it is a small portion of the overall industry. Overall price at the grocery store or at the restaurant, you will not see a difference because of this incident. For the people who own the animals, it's very costly and detrimental, and a very sad event for them."