Blizzard

[cross_7]

Not to throw stones but what about the blizzard that hit the Texas/Oklahoma panhandle last winter.
The death losses were staggering, most wheat pasture cattle are put together groups and all different brands, most don't keep records of every brand or brand 500+ head of stockers.
Most are kept on wheat pasture with electric fence and when the blizzard hit they drifted with the wind, calves were scattered to be nice and back and took weeks to find and sort what lived.
Did that make the national news, was there any compassion out of Washington

I'm guessing the term blizzard may actually have different meanings in different parts of the country

It was 19" of snow and 40 mph winds
What's your denfinition ?

Edit I was wrong on the wind

. Wind gusts have averaged between 50 and 60 mph, with hurricane-force gusts of 75 mph recorded at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport, the weather service said.

 

[ALACOWMAN]

he's in Minnesota, they just call it winter....

 

[Dave]

We had a little storm blow in back in 2007. The winds at the mouth of the Columbia were measured at 160 mph. I forget how much rain but a bunch. A lot of wind damage and record flooding. The only thing to make the national news was the fact that I-5 was shut down for a few days so people couldn't go north or south into or out of Seattle (there were alternate routes for those people with half a brain). Put a 160 mph wind on the east coast and you would hear about it for a week before it got there and then it would dominate the news for a month.

 

[xbred]

i'm not sure why this particular blizzard killed so many cattle. S Dakota gets a lot of snow and freezing weather every winter, don't they? I've heard that several days of rain preceded the freeze complicating the conditions... was it the amount of snow, the suddenness of the storm, or what?

 

[Dega Moo]

i'm not sure why this particular blizzard killed so many cattle. S Dakota gets a lot of snow and freezing weather every winter, don't they? I've heard that several days of rain preceded the freeze complicating the conditions... was it the amount of snow, the suddenness of the storm, or what?

It would seem to be several factors: it was a very early blizzard and caught many of the herds still on summer pasture meaning they were more exposed than usual; the cattle hadn't developed winter coats so lacked their natural protection; there were cold drenching rains initially followed by a wet snow and high winds causing drifting and driving the cattle to low spots, fences and breaks. The temps dropped and cattle froze to death, suffocated against each other while others drowned in high water caused by the heavy early rains.

Early estimates put the cattle loss at 75,000 head but the latest I've seen are estimating 20,000, still a big loss.

 

[John SD]

Livestock losses in this area were devastating to some. Other folks were spared and got through with light losses. Guy who pastures at my place lost 8 head out of 60. Not so "lucky" at another place further NE in the county.

Helped another neighbor haul lambs to the Newell sale yesterday. Never saw the place so busy. 20 trailers backed up on highway waiting to unload when we got there with the usual 4 trailers.

One estimate I heard on local TV news is that direct livestock losses were $500M. Total loss of economic activity in SD due to direct blizzard losses, lost/delayed retail sales, and cleanup operations was estimated at $1.7B Rapid City budgeting $100K just to clean up tree limb debris. Not counting extra snow plowing or stuff like that.

At this point I consider myself to be fortunate to be out of the cattle business. I intend to offer my renter and the folks who bought my place a break for next year's rent and this fall's land payment. My problems because of the storm were very minimal.