Thousands of livestock have already been confirmed dead and thousands more will follow in the wake of the wildfires that have devastated the Texas panhandle this week.
The Texas Department Agriculture said in a news release Wednesday that 85 percent of the cattle in Texas were on ranches in the panhandle — millions of animals, it said, “with some towns comprising more cattle than people.”
Two human lives had already been confirmed lost in the fires, CBS News confirmed, but the ultimate toll on cattle from what has become the largest wildfire in the recorded history of Texas, the Smokehouse Creek Fire, will almost certainly range into the tens of thousands.
Advertisement - story continues below
In addition to killing an unknown number of animals in the fires themselves, inventories of feed hay and grass have also been burned up.
“The fires have left little food or water for livestock,” The Texas Tribune reported Friday. “Some farmers lost everything. Property fences are gone. Hundreds of miles of power lines have burned, leaving no electricity to pump water from wells — which farmers rely on to hydrate their cattle. And it will take years for the land to recover and grow new vegetation for livestock in the area.
“Feed stores are already seeing many people in need of cattle food,” the outlet added.
Ranchers are searching hundreds of acres of “scorched earth” to locate and dispose of dead cattle, The Associated Press reported. Many others will have to be euthanized because of burns or other injuries too serious for them to survive.
Advertisement - story continues below
“There’s no grass, there’s no water for the livestock,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller told CNN on Saturday. “We’ve lost over 3,000 head, which is a very small number, that will double or triple easily. We’ve got cattle that we’re going to have to euthanize because of the damage to their hooves, their udders.
“We’ll just have to put them down,” he said.
Do you eat beef?
Yes: 97% (511 Votes)
No: 3% (17 Votes)
“Even if they survive it, more than likely they’re gonna get pneumonia, they’re gonna get sick, they’re gonna die,” cattle farmer Shane Pennington added, according to the outlet.
X-Cross-X Ranch operator Chance Bowers said that the loss of even a small portion of a rancher’s herd could mean financial ruin.
“These cows you see dead are worth between $2,500 and $3,000 apiece,” Bowers told the AP. “Financially, it’s a massive, massive burden on us.”
Advertisement - story continues below
Bill Martin of the Lonestar Stockyards auction in Wildorado told the outlet that drought had already driven the number of cattle in the U.S. to numbers as low as they’ve been since 1950.
“There’s a big shortage of cattle, so this is going to impact that immensely,” Martin said.
“Some of them lost all their cattle,” Martin said of ranchers in the panhandle. “Most of them lost some of their cattle.”
As of Sunday afternoon, the Smokehouse Creek Fire had already burned over 1.1 million acres and was considered only 15 percent contained.
Advertisement - story continues below
At least four other wildfires were burning in the area, according to CBS, who cited the Texas A&M Forest Service. The Smokehouse Creek Fire was the largest and least contained of the five.
A Note from Our Deputy Managing Editor:
I heard a chilling comment the other day: “We don’t even know if an election will be held in 2024.”
That wasn’t said by a conspiracy theorist or a doomsday prophet. No, former U.S. national security advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn said that to the founder of The Western Journal, Floyd Brown.
Gen. Flynn’s warning means that the 2024 election is the most important election for every single living American. If we lose this one to the wealthy elites who hate us, hate God, and hate what America stands for, we can only assume that 248 years of American history and the values we hold dear to our hearts may soon vanish.
The end game is here, and as Benjamin Franklin said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
All of this means that without you, it’s over. We have the platform, the journalists, and the experience to fight back hard, but Big Tech is strangling us through advertising blacklists, shadow bans, and algorithms. Did you know that we’ve been blacklisted by 90% of advertisers? Without direct support from you, our readers, we can’t continue the fight.
Can we count on your support? It may not seem like much, but a Western Journal Membership can make all the difference in the world because when you support us directly, you cut Big Tech out of the picture. They lose control.
A monthly Western Journal Membership costs less than one coffee and breakfast sandwich each month, and it gets you access to ALL of our content — news, commentary, and premium articles. You’ll experience a radically reduced number of ads, and most importantly you will be vitally supporting the fight for America’s soul in 2024.
We are literally counting on you because without our members, The Western Journal would cease to exist. Will you join us in the fight?
George Upper is the former Editor-in-Chief of The Western Journal and was a weekly co-host of "WJ Live," powered by The Western Journal. He is currently a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. A former U.S. Army special operator, teacher and consultant, he is a lifetime member of the NRA and an active volunteer leader in his church. Born in Foxborough, Massachusetts, he has lived most of his life in central North Carolina.
George Upper, is the former editor-in-chief of The Western Journal and is now a contributing editor in the areas of faith, politics and culture. He currently serves as the connections pastor at Awestruck Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. He is a former U.S. Army special operator, teacher, manager and consultant. Born in Massachusetts, he graduated from Foxborough High School before joining the Army and spending most of the next three years at Fort Bragg. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in English as well as a Master's in Business Administration, all from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He and his wife life only a short drive from his three children, their spouses and his grandchildren. He is a lifetime member of the NRA and in his spare time he shoots, reads a lot of Lawrence Block and John D. MacDonald, and watches Bruce Campbell movies. He is a fan of individual freedom, Tommy Bahama, fine-point G-2 pens and the Oxford comma.
