Hundreds of cattle lost to heat
At Atchison County feedlot, volunteer firefighters helped cool many
A "perfect storm" of intense heat, high humidity and a lack of wind caused "hundreds" of cattle to become overheated and die last week at Muscotah's Handke Cattle in Atchison County, coowner Terry Handke said.
The feedlot, which cares for thousands of cattle, took the same steps it had taken successfully to care for its livestock amid oppressive conditions in the past, but this time "the cattle just started crashing," Handke said Tuesday.
The experience was "like a bad dream," he said.
Fortunately, 55 volunteers from nine rural fire departments in Jackson, Jefferson, Atchison and Brown counties helped many cattle at the lot to survive by hosing them down between Tuesday and Friday, an official said.
The cattle responded "very well" to the water, said John Acheson, assistant chief of the Effingham Fire Department.
Those that survived were "back to eating and drinking" and no longer appeared to be suffering from heat stress over the weekend, he said Monday.
Muscotah, a city of 155 people, is about 36 miles north/northeast of Topeka.
Topeka temperatures between Aug. 19 and Friday reached at least 100 degrees for seven days in a row, with the heat index topping out at 124 degrees on Aug. 20 and 123 on Aug. 21, the National Weather Service said.
No figures were available Tuesday morning from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment regarding how many cattle died as a result of the heat wave.
"I don't have an exact number yet," said KDHE spokesman Matthew Lara. "I do know that there have been cattle deaths in Kansas."
Kansas had at least 2,000 cattle deaths in June 2022 amid triple-digit heat and high humidity, Lara said at the
time.
Many volunteer firefighters took off from their jobs to hose down cattle
Many of the firefighters who volunteered to hose down the cattle at the Handke feedlot have full-time jobs but took time off to come and help, Acheson said.
Handke said it was "a total humbling experience" to see the help the ranch got from those firefighters as well as area farmers.
One of his employees had "kind of given up on society" but now feels hope after seeing that, Handke said.
He said the ranch responded to last week's heat and humidity by carrying out its normal practice of wetting down the surface in the pens, which he said drops the surface temperature by 20 degrees.
Still, many cattle died, he said.
The death toll was highest among cattle that weighed 1,150 pounds or more, Handke said.
Larger cattle are more susceptible to heat, said Holton rancher Dan Doyle.
Doyle, whose ranch normally doesn't have any cattle over 900 pounds, said he felt "very fortunate" about how well it came through.
Two or three head of cattle died, but they had previously been treated for pneumonia and were more vulnerable than the others, Doyle said.
Events such as last week's heat wave take an emotional toll on the people who are caring for cattle, he said.
Livestock association official: Lack of night-time coolness hurt cattle
Scarlett Madinger, vice president of communications for the Kansas Livestock Association, said Monday that cattle accumulate heat throughout the day, then dispense of it at night when temperatures are lower.
However, the temperature needs to be below 70 degrees for cattle to get rid of the heat they have accumulated, Madinger said.
Night-time temperatures last week generally didn't get below 70 degrees, and on some nights didn't even get below 75, meaning the cattle were unable to dispense of the heat effectively, she said.
Ranchers may lose "hundreds of thousands of dollars" during extended heat waves, depending on how many cattle die, and what their market value would be, she said.
Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.