ARMA, Kan. – Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has directed state agencies to do everything they can to help those who lost cattle due to the heat in southwest Kansas. Temperatures in our area have also been high, but cattle here aren’t dying. We spoke with some local ranchers about why things are different here.
We spoke with Kaylee Johnson with the Producers Co-Op in Girard. She told us that there’s some misinformation floating around regarding the death of the cows in southwest Kansas. Kaylee pointed us to local ranchers Jeff and Heather Cleland. They both say they’ve heard some of the stranger stories being passed around. Heather Cleland says “One of the ones I read on the internet was a, somebody dropped some clover out and poisoned the cattle, and another one was a plane chemtrail.”
The heat isn’t just limited to southwest Kansas, all you have to do is step outside in the four-states and know…it’s hot. So, why haven’t we had the same issues with cattle here? Jeff says feed yard operations are one factor. “Here in Crawford County and Labette County, this area, we don’t have that type of operations, most of our cattle are out on grass, they can get in ponds, under trees for shade, out there, their feed yards, they have 100,000 cattle under one location, typically they don’t need shade, they don’t need things like that because it’s a different environment.”
Jeff adds the heat is a key factor in what happened out west, but it goes beyond just the heat. “This was the first really big heat event out there, so the animals hadn’t got a chance to acclimate, the 15th of August when there’s no humidity and the wind’s blowing 20 mph, it’s been 100° for two weeks, the animals are adjusted to it, the 10th of June, when it just rained and it’s really the first hot, hot week because we had a fairly cool spring, that’s what was the perfect storm to do what happened.”
Jeff says despite the high number of cattle deaths, it should not have an impact on beef supply.
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