Posted on 10/07/2013 6:29:58 PM PDT by Olog-hai
A record-breaking storm that dumped 4 feet of snow in parts of western South Dakota left ranchers dealing with heavy losses, in some cases perhaps up to half their herds, as they assess how many of their cattle died during the unseasonably early blizzard.
Meanwhile, utility companies were working to restore power to tens of thousands of people still without electricity Monday after the weekend storm that was part of a powerful weather system that also buried parts of Wyoming and Colorado with snow and produced destructive tornadoes in Nebraska and Iowa. At least four deaths were attributed to the weather, including a South Dakota man who collapsed while cleaning snow off his roof. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Usually South Dakota gets flurries and light snow in October, not this kind of dumping with the winds - that is February weather.
Lovely.
There was NOTHING that the sheep ranchers could do to save their flocks/herds?
You would think that, knowing the weather forecast in advance, there would be something that could be done. Are there no shelters, no valleys, no place for the sheep? What a shame...for the sheep to die that way.
This came fast and most ranchers didn’t have time to move all their head. You may want to try living on a ranch.
Got it.
Wow you don’t have a clue. Most ranchers live on thin margins and the insurance doesn’t cover it. No amount of price increase in meat is going to save some of these ranches or cover the losses.
If they were migratory they wouldn’t need to be driven, now would they?
Oh wow! Those are drifts we use to have here in Pa over wild winters....
This sounds pretty bad for the folks there....and to think if it took down 700 pine trees it’s gotta be really heavy!
Lord God..Be with these people as they struggle to get things up and running. And keep those in the back hills etc. safe until someone gets to them.
In Jesus name...Amen...
Just because you haven’t seen a pic doesn’t mean it is BS. I know a lot of ranchers who lost cattle because of this storm.
It's my guess that there are just too many sheep/cattle to move quickly. And, there are no shelters, valleys or protection for the animals. There is obviously no emergency plan or place for these kinds of catastrophes. The rancher just gets the insurance to pay up...and then has to hire help to come in and bury/burn the carcasses. I guess.
Not a couple of hundred miles at all. The storm dissipated past Wall (about 60 miles from Rapid) and you can move them to more sheltered areas (like behind bale walls). However this storm was much worse than expected and much faster - that was the issue and why so many got hurt.
And yes, I grew up in CA, I have sailed.
Move them to the lot, the yard. You know, close enough in to the house and barn to be able to tend to them.
Chipped beef...
“While South Dakota ranchers are no strangers to blizzards, what made Friday’s storm so damaging was how early it arrived in the season.
“Christen said cattle hadn’t yet grown their winter coats to insulate them from freezing wind and snow.
“In addition, during the cold months, ranchers tend to move their cattle to pastures that have more trees and gullies to protect them from storms. Because Friday’s storm arrived so early in the year, most ranchers were still grazing their herds on summer pasture, which tend to be more exposed and located farther away from ranch homes.
“Ultimately, Christen said, she believed that more than 5 percent of the roughly 1.5 million cattle in Western South Dakota had been killed.”
Read More, also see photos:
Further info here:
For the large farms that is probably true, moving them takes time, Western South Dakota is grassland and small hills. Most ranchers I know, were not expecting this much this fast and most are underinsured so insurance won’t pay up - maybe about 10% of the losses. A few of the larger ranches can take the loss but my aunt’s family lost over half their heard - almost half a million dollar loss and the margins are so thin - they probably won’t come back from it.
Carcass removal will depend on where and how many, most will dig a fire pit and burn there. No need to hire help, they will just bulldoze them into the pit they dig, light it on fire, and when burned bury it.
Not sure why that amuses you, but lol ‘til the cows come home.
Most ranchers live on thin margins? Sounds like a stupid way to make a living...having to depend SOLELY and ALWAYS on decent weather, NOT being covered with insurance, NOT having protection/shelter for the animals.
I used to believe that of the "poor" farmers in California who would get the catastrophic weather and be wiped out. They would JET into the afflicted area, look it over and JET back to their homestead, parking their JET in the "barn."
If ranching were so precarious, no one would do it except the DESPERATE or the DUMB. It's my guess that Uncle Sam offers remedy. They did in the past for the "poor" ranchers and farmers whose crops/animals were victims of the weather. I can't see why they wouldn't do it now.
They had about 18 hours notice and the storm was under reported. You really need to just shut up about things you have no clue about. The extent of the storm was a surprise and it can take days to move a herd. Furthermore, the models kept changing as to where it would it.
Stop blaming the ranchers. Every rancher I knew was hit by surprise.
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