Cattle losses from Goliath, the 2015 winter storm, could total more than 50,000 head across New Mexico and Texas Panhandle and South Plains, according to final estimates, reports Jerry Lackey (Agriculture Editor Emeritus for the San Angelo Standard-Times and Abilene Reporter-News and farm broadcaster emeritus for Voice of Southwest Agriculture Radio Network, San Angelo, TX. Jerry writes a regular newspaper column called Windmill Country.) “The blizzard arrived after Christmas and lingered for weeks with snow drifts as high as 14 feet in parts of eastern New Mexico and northwest Texas. This winter blizzard is being branded as the worst and deadliest U.S. storm system of 2015. Cattle that drifted from ranch pastures either bunched up at a windbreak and suffocated or walked over fences covered by frozen ice and snow and marched southward during the blizzard,” Jerry said. Although producers around Clovis, NM, spent a lot of time preparing for the storm by cleaning pens and adding new straw and building windbreaks to protect animals, they were overwhelmed when the blizzard hit, reports Erica Irlbeck (Allied Industry Member, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX). “They kept fresh feed in front of the cows as long as the weather would allow, constantly putting out feed as it would get covered in snow,” she said. Jerry added that more than 2,500 head may have frozen to death in Panhandle feedyards. An estimated 30,000 head of dairy cattle were lost. An estimated 15,000 mature dairy cows died in the storm’s primary impact area – from Lubbock west to Muleshoe and north to Friona, which is home to half the state’s top-10 milk producing counties and produces 40 percent of the state’s milk. The storm made it impossible for tanker trucks to reach dairy farms. Hundreds of loads of milk ready for processing were wasted. Some cows normally milked twice a day went almost two days without being milked. The bitter cold may have frozen the ears and tails of cattle and other animals, so partial loss may occur over the next few weeks. Jerry explains, “This is another gap in the goal of the cattle industry to rebuild herds following the big inventory drop from the 2011 drought. What is being called a whirlwind of dramatic extremes for the cattle industry over the last two years – tight supplies in 2014 and record market prices and cattle numbers still small but showing a slight turnaround in 2015 – the new year starts out with cattle inventory back to the lowest since 1993.” Jerry concludes, “That old adage about ‘If it wasn’t for bad luck, we would have no luck at all’ is certainly coming back in play.”
