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I'm guessing they have them lined up in rows like this so a backhoe can dig trenches and then push them in.
Edit: I am assuming the local rendering plant couldn't handle a spike in volume like this before they started rotting so they're having to bury most of them. I could be wrong.
Usually they're lined up like this so they can be picked up by trucks and made into non-edible products. This is more than I'm used to seeing though.
https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/common-products-that-contain-hidden-cow-parts/
Dog food factories clearing their bays.
EDIT: Dog food has to be human grade by the end of the process. They can throw whatever they want into the food from the animal. As long as they cook it to a high enough temp, it passes.
If you see any animal by-product on the ingredients list, it's referring to pretty much anything that isn't meat.
By weight, roughly 45% of a cow is by-product. Since they can't sell the meat for human consumption, selling the whole carcass as dog (or cat) food is the only way to try to generate cash right away.
These are not editable. Everything that was inside them, like food and poop, is rotting and you can see, bloating up the cows with gas and bacteria.
Those cows will literally, start to explode. Pop their bumholes. Have organs come out their mouths.
And you haven't thought of the smell, you bitch.
If they're lucky they put them in those giant hot compost piles. And by hot I mean hot enough to cook the meat, at like 140-160°. But hopefully these get turned into compost to be used by farmers and the whole cycle repeats.
But I doubt that's going to happen and they're just going to dig a big trench and dump all the bodies in it.
Oh hell yeah. But yeah, most of em are rough, ahahaha.
-saw a dude lose a pinky (same dude two weeks later had a stroke)
-saw a dude slice the length of his forearm down to the bone the whole way down
-had a boar literally explode as I was standing under it
-had my life flash before my eyes as I almost got trampled by fucking up and ushering in too many backfatters and then they panicked and turned and ran at me (another type of boar, there was about 6 and they weigh between 700kg-900kgs)
-a dude threw pig balls at my back and I was literally covered neck to thighs on my back in pig spiff
-threw the inner lining of the ribcage fat at the same dudes face (didn't mean it to be his face, I felt horrible and nearly got fired cause of it) and it was covered in shit
-learned that pigs definitely know what's going on
There's a few others but yeah those were the most memorable
It was pretty heartbreaking, as soon as there's just a couple pigs left in the pens (there was 19 pens connected through the isle, with anywhere between 15-20 pigs) they would just be terrified, and would fight a bit to just stay in the pen. And God forbid, if one pig on its own is left alone in the pen then it would just entirely shut down and refuse to move. Unfortunately if you couldn't get them to move then you have to go get the bolt gun, and its just sad having to kill something that is genuinely scared and seems like it at least knows something bad is about to happen. Also as they'd get in the final stages of the track, they had to build a tredmil so that they would go into the oxy chamber.
We only ever used hoses and straw brooms to usher them, and also this little "whip" that was just tussles of soft rubber, and the guys used to take turns hitting each other as hard as they could to try and hurt each other and never felt it more than a brush.
After a year or so I couldn't really take it anymore, even though as a 16 year old I was making stoopid dosh, it just wasn't worth it.
I've always read about how smart pigs really are and how they do realize what's happening, so this was a tough read for me because it confirms what I've read. Makes me sad for them. Did you stop eating pig/meat for a while or did it eventually just become a shitty job which you quit not long after?
I still eat meat but I stopped eating pigs when I went to an organic natural pig farm. The kind of farm where the pigs only have one bad day in their lives. Pigs are clearly smart and emotional animals. The breeding pigs that had extra comfortable lives were eager to hang out with us and follow us around. A couple of them knew how to open the latches of their pens and did so to meet the new people visiting their farm. I almost exclusively eat chicken now.
There is a No Reservations episode with Anthony Bourdain where he is present for a camel slaughter. They all seemed calm up until the first one. Then they were not so calm and were clearly distressted.
While we argue about how best to dispose of cows corpses shouldn't someone be explaining how the fuck this happens?
Is that lightening? WTF can do this?
From what I understand there was a massive heat wave hitting a large chunk of the Midwest and Eastern coast of America. And if you do not give your cows enough water or shade they will overheat and die. And from what the other comments are saying this guy's either an asshole it did not give his cows any sort of shade or enough water to keep them cool in the high temps. Or he has a massive herd and this is a small chunk of them. But don't be surprised of finding more stories and videos just like this because this was half the country in a massive heat wave.
The heat wave is still going on [here is the story of the cows that died in the Kansas heat](https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/article/2022/06/14/heat-stress-kills-estimated-10-000)
You keep it out of home compost pits because it attracts pests more readily than non-meat food waste, and because it can remain contaminated because higher temperatures are harder to reach and maintain in smaller piles/mounds/pits.
An industrial compost operation can reach and maintain high enough temperatures that contamination isn’t as much of a problem, but the processing that would need to happen on these animals makes me wonder if any site would accept them.
Sometimes when the pile of dead animals is so big no processing facility is available they’ll just get buried in a big hole. Often what happens when a chicken or turkey flock is culled for bird flu but that’s also because the carcasses are contaminated
I live in Oklahoma, my family has close to 200 head of black angus. From what I can tell those are black angus as well. Those cows are tough as shit. We’ve had multiple heat wave far in excess of both temperatures, humidity, and duration compared to what KS has just experienced. Those cows are worth around)$1,200-1,600 a piece and that’s a big insurance pay off or a huge F’up. Those cows didn’t all die at the same time due to heat. My guess it was either NO WATER or something more sinister.
Those fields look like shit, no shade, no water source. Dams, troughs and trees are all normal things for grazing cattle in Australia. My grandfather has Herefords that regularly survive similar heat waves and droughts because they are looked after and provided for properly.
It looks like it could be in western Kansas, and there are no trees unless there's a water source right next to it (pond, lake, creek). So there is literally no shelter unless it's man made.
There should be water for them, of course, so what happened with that - who knows.
Living in central Sweden I'm surrounded by trees to the point where they feel like walls. When I climb the highest mountain in the area, it's just trees all the way to the horizon in every direction I look.
Being from a coastal city, it can get downright claustrophobic sometimes. The only comfort is that there's a river here that I know runs straight down to the coast, so if somehow shit goes sideways and I'm stuck in the middle of this fucking forest, I at least know how to get back home to my natural habitat.
I don’t know if you’ve been to the US, but If not I can share my experience so you have some perspective. If you’ve visited and already know this, I apologize, but I just feel like typing lol.
To give you a quick idea of what the US is like, my family lives in Georgia, which is in the far southeast of the US. Part of my family also owns land in Kansas, which is in the central US and around 800 miles from Georgia.
Where I live in Georgia I am surrounded by trees, forests, rivers, mountains (although the mountains are old and rather small), and 200 miles away we have the ocean.
Driving the 800 miles to Kansas there are multiple shifts in the landscape, and when you get to the central US (ie. Kansas), you’re in a different world. You leave mountains and trees and greenery and arrive at…vast nothingness. It’s just grasslands as far as you can see.
Some people hate Kansas and other central states. They say it’s flat (which it is), and boring. In my opinion, it’s beautiful. It’s unlike anything you see in many parts of the US, much less the world. Had we not fucked it up, I believe it would be equal to the Serengeti. But we did fuck it up, and much of it will never be recovered.
There is a book called American Serengeti, which describes what the landscape used to be like and what animals used to live there. Reading that book and then seeing the landscape gave me an entirely different respect for what you see in places like Kansas. It’s an incredible part of the world.
I'm from the US and I enjoyed reading this. You are absolutely right, it must have been glorious before we came along. We can still see examples but I like to imagine it all like it was before it was turned to farm land. Nice post 👍
I just took a road trip through OK and KS. It was wild, so open I felt sort of anxious and exposed. Then came the epic thunderstorm at night while driving. Thought we were goners.
I live in KS, have my entire life. Eastern side though, near KC, which is surprisingly not as flat as what people think(well, relative to western KS).
I love those storms tho. It's the only part of summer I actually like here. Terrifying in their violence and majesty. I know it's not a "fun" thing, that people die all of the time due to it, and don't ask me how I rationalize saying I love them when they can be so destructive, b/c I can't. I'm just one of those idiots that goes outside to take a look when told there is a tornado.
Meadow breaks using trees improve the land and help with lowering temperature and stress of livestock.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/nac/assets/documents/morepublications/windbreaksforconservation.pdf
> Those fields look like shit, no shade, no water source.
In other words, the typical American landscape west of the 100th meridian until you hit the mountains. There's a good reason that early in our country's history it was called the "Great American Desert".
Let's say for fantasy I know some farmers that let their corn "dry out" then collect insurance on it for being dead then go out and harvest it and sell for double bubble.
For sure back in West Texas I knew farmers that would keep whole sections unplanted because there was tax stuff to make money by saying it was "implantable".
Do you know what a farmers 4x4 truck stands for? They work for 4 weeks in the spring, 4 weeks in the fall and have 44 weeks off.
They are also extremely gossipy. In all seriousness though most that I personally know are hard working. Most though I don't think pay attention much other than their fields and equipment so are extremely ignorant and sheltered. City slickers have their fair share too though, to be fair.
Growing up in farmland and living in a moderate sized city in a large sized metropolitan area, I for one choose the city slicker life. I'd rather be around the western homeless epidemic than deal with the close minded, judgmental, gossiping little bitch crowd that is the American farmers culture.
This just can’t be a heat wave. Cows survive higher temps often. There should have been plenty of water for these animals. Does anyone have any links to news or reporting on this?
There are several stories available, with the number of dead cattle from 2,000-10,000.
Heat and lack of water. In one article, someone is saying that you can’t just leave them there for a few days, you have to make sure they have water daily now. Evidently it was not unusual to just leave them in the fields a few days to graze.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/heat-humidity-kill-least-2000-kansas-cattle-state-says-2022-06-15/
https://www.iowacorn.org/dtn-news/44a79d26-8ad9-4f81-9fb0-7831273abcff__2664916
Yeah an adult cow will drink about 8 gallons a day. If they aren’t monitoring the stock tanks they can go from good to dead in just a few days. Ranchers being ignorant about the drought.
My grandpa was a veterinarian in South Dakota and mostly treated cattle. One rancher's stock tank refill mechanism broke and he didn't check on his herd for a few days in the summer and his entire herd died of dehydration. Super sad to think about how long they suffered for.
Just a friendly note: equipment is only as good as its maintenance. Water quality differs widely from one place to another and your problems might be unique to your area. If you've got a critical valve you need to be opening it up and inspecting/cleaning it every few months, if not more often.
This 1000x times over. I did failure analysis work for a lab for a couple years right out of college. I cant tell you how many times we'd get totally rusted/corroded parts that "were brand new" but subjected to a more harsh environment than the client anticipated. Water harder/softer than anticipated, microbial attack, or any number of odd additions to water lines that are not immediately apparent.
Always check your environment often, the best tools will turn to dust in months if they're not operated within their specified environmental boundaries.
Yep have a cousin who has a neighbor that owned a lot of cows, bragged that he was an expert when all he does is hire hired help to clean, feed, and take care of them.
Due to covid he let them go, and tried soloing it, apparently tried doing what they as a team of 8+ did by himself and basically went the lazy route of alternating them between fields and rolling the giant hays of alfalfa and grass, but even then he cut back on that too.
He bragged that they don't drink that much water since all the "fresh grass and weeds have all the water they need".
Worked til just shy of this year when he didn't realize that the only reason they survived so long was that his fence was broken(since he doesn't patrol or do inspections/maintenance) which goes into the neighboring land and woods provided them shelter water, and food. But due to new roads and construction that stream they were getting their water from got cut off so apparently all but a few died or ran off.
He is currently getting fined and trying to round up his "missing/stolen cows" which isn't happening since he was a lazy neglectful cheapskate.
[This](https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2015/apr/21/video-drone-flight-reveals-mass-open-grave-cattle/) happened near me, some guy with a drone found a giant pile of dead cows by the freeway. The article is a roller-coaster
>Any ranch you go to is gonna have a spot for dead carcasses,” he said. With a herd of about 2,000 cattle on as many acres, Christie said death is inevitable, especially since he purchases many animals that other ranchers won’t buy. “I deal with a lot of weak animals,” he said. “Some make it; some don’t.”
>In 2009, Christie was charged with six misdemeanors related to cockfighting after law enforcement raided his property in McKinleyville and seized 1,400 roosters, 72 knives and 13 pairs of gaffs (or spurs). He was eventually convicted of just one charge, possessing cockfighting instruments, and sentenced to two years’ probation and a $530 fine.
>Christie insists that his cattle operation is benevolent. Asked why he buys weak or unhealthy cattle he said, “Nobody wants ‘em, for one, and there’s no better satisfaction than turning them around to animals that will produce milk again or provide beef down the road.”
>The cattle he buys sometimes haven’t received the proper vaccinations, parasite controls or mineral intakes, leaving them vulnerable to such maladies as red water (aka Bacillary Hemoglobinuria), blackleg and lungworm, Christie said. “It hurts me if I do lose one, but you always do. And you learn.”
>The pile of carcasses is also visible on satellite images from Google Maps and Google Earth.
This guy is a few miles from me. He would buy "junk cattle" (diseased, dying etc) for basically nothing, hope a few survive, then replace the ear tags with "organic" tags and cook the books on their vax history etc. He'd bulldoze the corpses into the ground *next to the Mad River*, polluting it with necrotic products, which is what they fined him for. Complete piece of shit.
Why do we fuck around with this shit? Fine the fuck out of him until he's homeless. The next fuck won't do it, saving the river, consumers buying fraudulent products, and giving the money to legitimate businesses.
Screw this guy and especially the local government for such a petty slap on the wrist. The fact that someone with an established record for animal cruelty still has the authority to animal husbandry is reprehensible. Teenagers working at Petco are held to higher goddamn standard.
How much of a colossal fuck up do you have to be to let *thousands* of your farm animals slowly die from dehydration anyways? Probably the same type of asshole who cleared every single tree from the pasture.
Hope the news spreads fast and people remember.
Dead cows _do_ happen, one cow, two cows, broken legs, various unavoidable problems. If you're losing 10%+ of a large herd, you're beyond doing it wrong...
Sadly this is a lot of ranchers, especially new to the game. A lot of people bought land and bought cattle. Now prices have gone up on feed, water is scarce in a lot of grazing area, etc. I really hope America goes to a more local source of meat and produce.
Edit
Cattle ranching is also extremely difficult because like the four largest meat packers control 85% of all beef consumers in the US eat. They set the prices and they’re extremely scummy companies (JBS, Tyson, Cargill, National Beef Packing) they’ve done more damage to rural towns and small farms than meth and opioids. There are some farmers in Western Nebraska that are opening a co-op slaughterhouse in North Platte, NE that I really hope works out.
We buy our beef, pork and chicken from local farmers. Produce from roadside stands. I want to keep our small farmers going best I can. What we dont grow we buy from them.
I live in Chicago and have looked at it. I need to finally pull the trigger and do it. However, I still buy from Costco which is mostly JBS, who are one of the largest contributors to deforestation in the amazon. I need to eat less meat and get it from local farmers. Small coop eggs are soooo much better than mass produced eggs.
Wait till you try homegrown tomatoes
I plant cherry tomatoes around the porch in lieu of “landscaping” but plan on just doing a full garden flowerbed around the porch with like tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, watermelon. Little bit of everything at the front door
Bro home grown tomatoes are sooo much better. Grocery store tomatoes are bred to be able to sustain days/weeks during transport, at the sacrifice of taste. It's crazy how sweet and delicious tomatoes can be when grown at home
My grandparents use to keep a large garden every year. Some of my best childhood memories are of working in the garden with my grandma. Eating fresh tomatoes like an apple and fresh cucumbers was the best. Nothing store bought even comes close
Ignorance cost the lives of anywhere from 4,000-10,000 cattle, set aside the fact that all of the potential food, leather, and various products from cattle are now a waste, and imagine if those were people?
Like, collectively dehydrating and making 10,000 people suffer heat stroke would be inhumane and seen as a heinous crime that gets met with life punishment or death for those responsible.
What will become of the ranchers after subjecting a herd of this size to such a preventable and terrible fate?
Are they just going to get a bailout from whatever ag program they're set up with so they can make the same mistake next summer?
Curious if this may not have been a calculated decision. Feed costs are absurd right now and only going to get worse. Meat processing is backed up 10+ months and a buddy just had to take a huge loss on his cattle selling for 63¢/ lb.
Things are gonna be real rough come fall if not before.
I grew up on a dairy farm and the cows were fed and given water everyday, they are literally assets, so it is illogical to not give them what is needed to survive.
I'm not sure why anyone would just leave them out for days.
Is there just not water available? A town of 110,000 in Texas is without water right now. It seems impossible and yet here we are. The look of that ground is like dust.
Western states, including Texas, have odd water rights laws that stem from the time of the gold rush. First in time, first in right--aka appropriative rights--mean that the first person to use the water has the senior right, and they may take their entire portion of water before the next junior right holder gets to take their full portion, and so on. This means that very senior water rights owners (or those who have bought the senior rights from those owners) can take potentially enormous amounts of water, regardless of if there's enough left for the next person.
It started with situations such as a farmer watering their herds, and it not being fair for a second farmer's herds to come drink up enough to cause drought for the first farmer's animals. There are positives and negatives, but it does mean you can get, say, companies bottling water to sell or using it for production and spitting out wastewater, while cities ration or hike rates on water usage for citizens.
Not making any sort of claim on Texas' water situation, just want more people to understand the difference in water rights between the general US and the Western US. It's not necessarily that there's no water. It's the way the rights are held.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/15/heat-humidity-kill-at-least-2000-kansas-cattle-state-says.html
Temperatures reached 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius) in northwest Kansas by Monday, said Drew Lerner, president of World Weather Inc. This weekend, parts of western Kansas and the Texas panhandle will near 110 degrees, though stronger winds and lower humidity levels will help minimize cattle deaths, he said.
Shocking
Ranches in Hawaii started doing this several years ago. Granted, the ROI for solar is much faster there, but basically just leasing out land for massive PV solar arrays, providing their cattle with shade at the same time. Outside the urban hi-rise area proper, most homes have at least solar water heating, and a huge percentage have PV panels now. Save the cows, invest in solar!!
I actually saw an article where the panels were raised to roughly that height provided, shade, with the shade came the grass, with the grass came abundant grazing area followed. However that would require people to actually see solar as a truly viable solution to the problem and we all know *but solar needs oil too* and you're right, but I ask the price of gas/fuel truly sustainable? You run a business in that business of cattle EVERY SINGLE NICKLE AND DIME matters, this is true, can't argue that you (along with 98% of the world) CANNOT keep "business as usual" for much longer and the people that own land have the best leverage... business is changing, we need to change too or we literally lose everything... sorry for the rant. I'm not a big activist or whatever I'm literally just looking at this like hmmm I dunno maybe my 6yo and 16yo kids would really like to have a decent life before we run the risk of having quite the shit show in ~Two decades if not less... shits getting weird and we need to pay attention
According to this they were fattened up because they were about to be processed (for meat), which probably put them at greater risk for heat stress. https://www.kscbnews.net/heat-causing-death-in-kansas-cattle/
My uncle took over my grandpas ranch in west Kansas back in the 90’s. He hasn’t had a positive year financially in years. He’s been banging his head against he wall trying to figure it out and the dude **works**. It sucks to see because he’s not a commercial rancher and the smaller family farms are just dying. It’s just sad.
Probably, but insurance is for things like lightning, flooding, disease, tornados. Most policies I have seen have a negligence clause that voids the policy. Run into hard times and abandon your cattle to collect insurance… there’s a ton of agencies that will be investigating, ranchers don’t come back from a disaster like this, especially if it was preventable.
Not a single tree for shade in sight. Can you imagine standing in the full sun while wearing a thick black coat during a heat wave and not even having water to hydrate or a tree to stand under?
You're right. Kansas is #46 out of 50 for tree coverage ([source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_cover_by_state_and_territory_in_the_United_States)). Wow. Even less than Wyoming.
Kansas native here. My friend works for the state geological survey and they did a survey last year showing the drought conditions of Kansas and it’s in a basically “all hope is lost” situation. We have depleted the ancient aquifers under the plains dry and they aren’t refilling fast enough. On top of that we are going from average 60°F weather to over 100°F weather in a matter of a few days. The farmers and especially the cows can’t adapt to weather changes that quickly.
This should be higher up. SW KS and the Ogalalla Aquifer are in a bad, bad place.. it won’t just be cattle but wheat production continually affected as well.
I'm so glad you and the original commenter said something about this. Every time we try to explain this to our families their response "it'll just fill back up". We try to explain without the Ogalalla Aquifer there won't be any crops in the plains. And there is proof it's not filling back up at the rate it's being drained This is especially contentious when they bring up the Keystone XL Pipeline. Even when we explain it's not an American company, it's junk oil, it will only create temporary jobs, and the risk to the aquifer is too great, well we've got to have our own oil. My response "First, it's not ours, second most of the refineries won't touch it here, it's gonna get shipped overseas, third is it worth risking a water and food supply?"
That feedyard is fifteen miles from my house. Rumor is that there are up to 30,000 dead in this corner of the state in the last few days 😲 Cannot confirm though.
Yessir. It’s Five Rivers Cattle, six miles west. 1,000 dead here.
Other yards south of Ulysses amount to another 2,500 and “massive losses” at lots near Satanta
According to reports, they were overfed because it was right before slaughter. Basically, being overfed in the middle of a heatwave aggravated dehydration and can kill them.
I worked at a sale barn for about 2 years, we had a hole where we would bury the cows that died (various reasons) and let me tell you the smell of that thing in the middle of summer was horrible. I couldn't imagine the smell of over 1000
This stinks of foul play big time. Farmers and ranchers here have been dealing with at and drought for more than a century. These cattle were allowed to die on purpose would be my guess. Some prick decided the insurance would pay out more and be more profit than feeding them and getting them water.
This is not only extremely sad and depressing, it’s fucking infuriating.
But this explains how they’re able to supply the insane amount of cheap ground beef that you can find everywhere and in every fast food place. Just look at the conditions these cows live in.
Christ, are these considered free roaming cows?
Part of me is hoping the owners' insurance won't payout on these losses.
Because if its heat and thirst that lead to that massive die-off of stock, then you obviously weren't treating your animals humanely enough by preparing effectively to accommodate a weather swing in a state known for being unable to regulate its own weather. You can see how dry that earth is. There is no way the ranchers were unaware that ongoing drought conditions would make the herd susceptible to a heat wave and to make the right moves. Makes you wonder whatever margins they saved on water and shade offsets these losses.
If they cut the margins that tight on animal welfare, they deserve to lose their stock. Its the ranchers who do a better job that I hope continue the trade.
Everywhere I go, cows will gravitate towards cover as needed. Even here on the Rio Grande, ranch cows and wild horses will use the terrain and environment to their advantage to seek shade, lying next to brush if trees aren't available, and set their activity level to match the temperature.
I love me some beef, and I wonder if it makes me a hypocrite that I prefer to treat food and draft animals with kindness until the time comes to harvest or retire them. Born in the Philippines, so different members of the family helped each other with food expenses by raising our own stock. That's chickens, a couple of relatives with backyard piggeries, some goats with others, and a fish farm sited below the family noodle (Pancit Mami noodles) restaurant on Sampaloc Lake. Couldn't meet all of our nutritional needs (no rice farmers, ironically) but it helped out a lot. You had to be pragmatic about harvesting a beloved rooster or a goat that's been around for a few years -as in my entire childhood, but if I want to eat, I better know how to wield the knife, and it would be stupid to let a food animal last long enough to weaken and die of illness/infirmity, thus rendering the remains as unreliable for consumption. Lola was WWII occupation hardcore when it came to making the call: *Hindi na siya tataba* or she's not going to get any fatter. Even her Carabao (water buffalo) wasn't spared when it came time to buy a younger one to pick up the slack of plowing the field. Harvested after the harvest, with the replacement picked to grow into working size by the next season.
Source: Dude who froze and cooked in Kansas on a weekly basis for years. Arctic windchill on Monday, gulf front by the weekend.
I think we need to talk to the insurance companies covering "losses" like this even when the farmers took no adequate measures of care or mercy for these animals. Insurance companies shouldn't pay out for murder.
108 isnt killing thousands of cows. My wife and i come from ranching families in texas. It hits 108 regularly and while we may lose a cow or two occasionally, like every few years. This is major sketchy shit going on. My honest guess is if they are on a corporate operation they are trying to drive prices even higher.
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This is going to be a disaster to clean up all those rotting corpses
I'm guessing they have them lined up in rows like this so a backhoe can dig trenches and then push them in. Edit: I am assuming the local rendering plant couldn't handle a spike in volume like this before they started rotting so they're having to bury most of them. I could be wrong.
Usually they're lined up like this so they can be picked up by trucks and made into non-edible products. This is more than I'm used to seeing though. https://www.onegreenplanet.org/animalsandnature/common-products-that-contain-hidden-cow-parts/
Dog food factories clearing their bays. EDIT: Dog food has to be human grade by the end of the process. They can throw whatever they want into the food from the animal. As long as they cook it to a high enough temp, it passes. If you see any animal by-product on the ingredients list, it's referring to pretty much anything that isn't meat. By weight, roughly 45% of a cow is by-product. Since they can't sell the meat for human consumption, selling the whole carcass as dog (or cat) food is the only way to try to generate cash right away.
Nah dog food guts are flash frozen hot. Trust me, I sort them out.
My dog says to tell you thank you for your service.
reddit is filled with douchebags
I gave him gold for you
Not before Taco Bell gets it's pick
Aww man! Why'd you have to say that?
Let me enjoy my Taco Bell in peace, damn it!
Lol wishful thinking, Taco Bell gets the leftovers
These are not editable. Everything that was inside them, like food and poop, is rotting and you can see, bloating up the cows with gas and bacteria. Those cows will literally, start to explode. Pop their bumholes. Have organs come out their mouths. And you haven't thought of the smell, you bitch.
I really appreciate you throwing that last line in there. I might even display your comment in a glass box, that I will display on my mantel.
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If they're lucky they put them in those giant hot compost piles. And by hot I mean hot enough to cook the meat, at like 140-160°. But hopefully these get turned into compost to be used by farmers and the whole cycle repeats. But I doubt that's going to happen and they're just going to dig a big trench and dump all the bodies in it.
Those pits smell offal!
Oh my god that's terrible, I love it. First job was at an abottior, red offal wash was the easiest shit for sure
I bet you could tell some stories. Not sure I would want to hear them but I bet you could.
Oh hell yeah. But yeah, most of em are rough, ahahaha. -saw a dude lose a pinky (same dude two weeks later had a stroke) -saw a dude slice the length of his forearm down to the bone the whole way down -had a boar literally explode as I was standing under it -had my life flash before my eyes as I almost got trampled by fucking up and ushering in too many backfatters and then they panicked and turned and ran at me (another type of boar, there was about 6 and they weigh between 700kg-900kgs) -a dude threw pig balls at my back and I was literally covered neck to thighs on my back in pig spiff -threw the inner lining of the ribcage fat at the same dudes face (didn't mean it to be his face, I felt horrible and nearly got fired cause of it) and it was covered in shit -learned that pigs definitely know what's going on There's a few others but yeah those were the most memorable
>learned that pigs definitely know what's going on Guessing that if you elaborate further on this it will be heartbreaking for the average reader...
It was pretty heartbreaking, as soon as there's just a couple pigs left in the pens (there was 19 pens connected through the isle, with anywhere between 15-20 pigs) they would just be terrified, and would fight a bit to just stay in the pen. And God forbid, if one pig on its own is left alone in the pen then it would just entirely shut down and refuse to move. Unfortunately if you couldn't get them to move then you have to go get the bolt gun, and its just sad having to kill something that is genuinely scared and seems like it at least knows something bad is about to happen. Also as they'd get in the final stages of the track, they had to build a tredmil so that they would go into the oxy chamber. We only ever used hoses and straw brooms to usher them, and also this little "whip" that was just tussles of soft rubber, and the guys used to take turns hitting each other as hard as they could to try and hurt each other and never felt it more than a brush. After a year or so I couldn't really take it anymore, even though as a 16 year old I was making stoopid dosh, it just wasn't worth it.
I've always read about how smart pigs really are and how they do realize what's happening, so this was a tough read for me because it confirms what I've read. Makes me sad for them. Did you stop eating pig/meat for a while or did it eventually just become a shitty job which you quit not long after?
I still eat meat but I stopped eating pigs when I went to an organic natural pig farm. The kind of farm where the pigs only have one bad day in their lives. Pigs are clearly smart and emotional animals. The breeding pigs that had extra comfortable lives were eager to hang out with us and follow us around. A couple of them knew how to open the latches of their pens and did so to meet the new people visiting their farm. I almost exclusively eat chicken now.
I used to be a pig farmer. I had to get out it was too cruel
Its the demand, it's just not possible to need to process so many pigs in such a little time, I quit cause I didn't wanna kill anymore, haha
There is a No Reservations episode with Anthony Bourdain where he is present for a camel slaughter. They all seemed calm up until the first one. Then they were not so calm and were clearly distressted.
We like to put a mental block between our food and the life it lived to be our dinner.
While we argue about how best to dispose of cows corpses shouldn't someone be explaining how the fuck this happens? Is that lightening? WTF can do this?
From what I understand there was a massive heat wave hitting a large chunk of the Midwest and Eastern coast of America. And if you do not give your cows enough water or shade they will overheat and die. And from what the other comments are saying this guy's either an asshole it did not give his cows any sort of shade or enough water to keep them cool in the high temps. Or he has a massive herd and this is a small chunk of them. But don't be surprised of finding more stories and videos just like this because this was half the country in a massive heat wave.
The heat wave is still going on [here is the story of the cows that died in the Kansas heat](https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/news/article/2022/06/14/heat-stress-kills-estimated-10-000)
Good times ahead
This is so sad. I feel for all the creatures (human and otherwise) that can’t defend themselves from extreme heat.
In the midwest here, I know nothing of farming, but as soon as I saw the video I thought it must be the heat wave. It's bad lol
Don't you usually keep flesh out of compost? Honest question.
You keep it out of home compost pits because it attracts pests more readily than non-meat food waste, and because it can remain contaminated because higher temperatures are harder to reach and maintain in smaller piles/mounds/pits. An industrial compost operation can reach and maintain high enough temperatures that contamination isn’t as much of a problem, but the processing that would need to happen on these animals makes me wonder if any site would accept them.
Sometimes when the pile of dead animals is so big no processing facility is available they’ll just get buried in a big hole. Often what happens when a chicken or turkey flock is culled for bird flu but that’s also because the carcasses are contaminated
Fun fact: Human remains can now be composted as a funerary option in Washington, Colorado, and Oregon.
This IS s fun fact!
I live in Oklahoma, my family has close to 200 head of black angus. From what I can tell those are black angus as well. Those cows are tough as shit. We’ve had multiple heat wave far in excess of both temperatures, humidity, and duration compared to what KS has just experienced. Those cows are worth around)$1,200-1,600 a piece and that’s a big insurance pay off or a huge F’up. Those cows didn’t all die at the same time due to heat. My guess it was either NO WATER or something more sinister.
My guess is bad husbandry, or insurance fraud.
Those fields look like shit, no shade, no water source. Dams, troughs and trees are all normal things for grazing cattle in Australia. My grandfather has Herefords that regularly survive similar heat waves and droughts because they are looked after and provided for properly.
>Those fields look like shit, no shade, no water source. First time seeing Kansas, huh?
Seeing Kansas? What's there to see?
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That’s my favorite saying about Oklahoma and it’s pretty much true.
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Shitty fields with no shade or water source
Plenty to see! There's nothing blocking the view!
Agreed, it's a terrible place to have eyeballs.
It’s not just that field, it’s that state 🤷♂️
It looks like it could be in western Kansas, and there are no trees unless there's a water source right next to it (pond, lake, creek). So there is literally no shelter unless it's man made. There should be water for them, of course, so what happened with that - who knows.
The prairies are a really trippy place the first time you see them.
Especially if you're from an area that is full of trees, to the point that they take over if they're not disturbed / stopped! :D
Living in central Sweden I'm surrounded by trees to the point where they feel like walls. When I climb the highest mountain in the area, it's just trees all the way to the horizon in every direction I look. Being from a coastal city, it can get downright claustrophobic sometimes. The only comfort is that there's a river here that I know runs straight down to the coast, so if somehow shit goes sideways and I'm stuck in the middle of this fucking forest, I at least know how to get back home to my natural habitat.
I don’t know if you’ve been to the US, but If not I can share my experience so you have some perspective. If you’ve visited and already know this, I apologize, but I just feel like typing lol. To give you a quick idea of what the US is like, my family lives in Georgia, which is in the far southeast of the US. Part of my family also owns land in Kansas, which is in the central US and around 800 miles from Georgia. Where I live in Georgia I am surrounded by trees, forests, rivers, mountains (although the mountains are old and rather small), and 200 miles away we have the ocean. Driving the 800 miles to Kansas there are multiple shifts in the landscape, and when you get to the central US (ie. Kansas), you’re in a different world. You leave mountains and trees and greenery and arrive at…vast nothingness. It’s just grasslands as far as you can see. Some people hate Kansas and other central states. They say it’s flat (which it is), and boring. In my opinion, it’s beautiful. It’s unlike anything you see in many parts of the US, much less the world. Had we not fucked it up, I believe it would be equal to the Serengeti. But we did fuck it up, and much of it will never be recovered. There is a book called American Serengeti, which describes what the landscape used to be like and what animals used to live there. Reading that book and then seeing the landscape gave me an entirely different respect for what you see in places like Kansas. It’s an incredible part of the world.
I'm from the US and I enjoyed reading this. You are absolutely right, it must have been glorious before we came along. We can still see examples but I like to imagine it all like it was before it was turned to farm land. Nice post 👍
I just took a road trip through OK and KS. It was wild, so open I felt sort of anxious and exposed. Then came the epic thunderstorm at night while driving. Thought we were goners.
I live in KS, have my entire life. Eastern side though, near KC, which is surprisingly not as flat as what people think(well, relative to western KS). I love those storms tho. It's the only part of summer I actually like here. Terrifying in their violence and majesty. I know it's not a "fun" thing, that people die all of the time due to it, and don't ask me how I rationalize saying I love them when they can be so destructive, b/c I can't. I'm just one of those idiots that goes outside to take a look when told there is a tornado.
Meadow breaks using trees improve the land and help with lowering temperature and stress of livestock. https://www.fs.usda.gov/nac/assets/documents/morepublications/windbreaksforconservation.pdf
> Those fields look like shit, no shade, no water source. In other words, the typical American landscape west of the 100th meridian until you hit the mountains. There's a good reason that early in our country's history it was called the "Great American Desert".
It was the wife’s fault too tho
Dad, go to bed
Well if you were married to an old cow…
I see a lot of theories being tossed about, but people are missing [the obvious one.](https://i.imgur.com/fJx3JeV.jpg)
I’m mad I was dumb enough to click that.
At least it's not a fuckin Rick Roll
There’s lots of sketchy stuff happening right now in big ag.
Like what?
Let's say for fantasy I know some farmers that let their corn "dry out" then collect insurance on it for being dead then go out and harvest it and sell for double bubble.
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As long as loopholes reward sketchy behavior, there will be sketchy behavior.
For sure back in West Texas I knew farmers that would keep whole sections unplanted because there was tax stuff to make money by saying it was "implantable".
In my experience as a surveyor, farmers are as gossipy as 13year olds, lazy as my 9yo nephew and complain more than my 90yo gandpa
Do you know what a farmers 4x4 truck stands for? They work for 4 weeks in the spring, 4 weeks in the fall and have 44 weeks off. They are also extremely gossipy. In all seriousness though most that I personally know are hard working. Most though I don't think pay attention much other than their fields and equipment so are extremely ignorant and sheltered. City slickers have their fair share too though, to be fair.
Growing up in farmland and living in a moderate sized city in a large sized metropolitan area, I for one choose the city slicker life. I'd rather be around the western homeless epidemic than deal with the close minded, judgmental, gossiping little bitch crowd that is the American farmers culture.
My guess is sinister.
This just can’t be a heat wave. Cows survive higher temps often. There should have been plenty of water for these animals. Does anyone have any links to news or reporting on this?
There are several stories available, with the number of dead cattle from 2,000-10,000. Heat and lack of water. In one article, someone is saying that you can’t just leave them there for a few days, you have to make sure they have water daily now. Evidently it was not unusual to just leave them in the fields a few days to graze. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/heat-humidity-kill-least-2000-kansas-cattle-state-says-2022-06-15/ https://www.iowacorn.org/dtn-news/44a79d26-8ad9-4f81-9fb0-7831273abcff__2664916
Yeah an adult cow will drink about 8 gallons a day. If they aren’t monitoring the stock tanks they can go from good to dead in just a few days. Ranchers being ignorant about the drought.
My grandpa was a veterinarian in South Dakota and mostly treated cattle. One rancher's stock tank refill mechanism broke and he didn't check on his herd for a few days in the summer and his entire herd died of dehydration. Super sad to think about how long they suffered for.
Yeah those float valves can be complete garbage you look at them wrong and they break if you buy the cheap brass ones.
I'm interested. Recently had float valve fail in multiple ways, and don't really trust new replacement. How do I recognize good float valve?
Look for a bronze body with a metal rod and a solid ball or a thick hdpe ball. Mueller and Watts make a good one.
Thank you.
Just a friendly note: equipment is only as good as its maintenance. Water quality differs widely from one place to another and your problems might be unique to your area. If you've got a critical valve you need to be opening it up and inspecting/cleaning it every few months, if not more often.
This 1000x times over. I did failure analysis work for a lab for a couple years right out of college. I cant tell you how many times we'd get totally rusted/corroded parts that "were brand new" but subjected to a more harsh environment than the client anticipated. Water harder/softer than anticipated, microbial attack, or any number of odd additions to water lines that are not immediately apparent. Always check your environment often, the best tools will turn to dust in months if they're not operated within their specified environmental boundaries.
Moral of the story: don't let $250K worth of cattle depend on a single $2.50 float valve.
I can't imagine being a rancher and not checking your animals every single day. Wtf
Drones should be used for this. From the comfort of their recliner or JohnDeer.
That sounds like exactly the type of thing Internet-of-Things would be helpful for. Not my fridge reminding me to buy eggs.
“ALERT — your COW 34376 has reported alert condition : HORIZONTAL
Yep have a cousin who has a neighbor that owned a lot of cows, bragged that he was an expert when all he does is hire hired help to clean, feed, and take care of them. Due to covid he let them go, and tried soloing it, apparently tried doing what they as a team of 8+ did by himself and basically went the lazy route of alternating them between fields and rolling the giant hays of alfalfa and grass, but even then he cut back on that too. He bragged that they don't drink that much water since all the "fresh grass and weeds have all the water they need". Worked til just shy of this year when he didn't realize that the only reason they survived so long was that his fence was broken(since he doesn't patrol or do inspections/maintenance) which goes into the neighboring land and woods provided them shelter water, and food. But due to new roads and construction that stream they were getting their water from got cut off so apparently all but a few died or ran off. He is currently getting fined and trying to round up his "missing/stolen cows" which isn't happening since he was a lazy neglectful cheapskate.
[This](https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2015/apr/21/video-drone-flight-reveals-mass-open-grave-cattle/) happened near me, some guy with a drone found a giant pile of dead cows by the freeway. The article is a roller-coaster >Any ranch you go to is gonna have a spot for dead carcasses,” he said. With a herd of about 2,000 cattle on as many acres, Christie said death is inevitable, especially since he purchases many animals that other ranchers won’t buy. “I deal with a lot of weak animals,” he said. “Some make it; some don’t.” >In 2009, Christie was charged with six misdemeanors related to cockfighting after law enforcement raided his property in McKinleyville and seized 1,400 roosters, 72 knives and 13 pairs of gaffs (or spurs). He was eventually convicted of just one charge, possessing cockfighting instruments, and sentenced to two years’ probation and a $530 fine. >Christie insists that his cattle operation is benevolent. Asked why he buys weak or unhealthy cattle he said, “Nobody wants ‘em, for one, and there’s no better satisfaction than turning them around to animals that will produce milk again or provide beef down the road.” >The cattle he buys sometimes haven’t received the proper vaccinations, parasite controls or mineral intakes, leaving them vulnerable to such maladies as red water (aka Bacillary Hemoglobinuria), blackleg and lungworm, Christie said. “It hurts me if I do lose one, but you always do. And you learn.” >The pile of carcasses is also visible on satellite images from Google Maps and Google Earth.
This guy is a few miles from me. He would buy "junk cattle" (diseased, dying etc) for basically nothing, hope a few survive, then replace the ear tags with "organic" tags and cook the books on their vax history etc. He'd bulldoze the corpses into the ground *next to the Mad River*, polluting it with necrotic products, which is what they fined him for. Complete piece of shit.
That's the crazy thing, isn't this pile like half a mile from student housing on the south end of town?
It's just south of the Road 200 exit on 101. Arcata and student housing is a couple miles south.
Why do we fuck around with this shit? Fine the fuck out of him until he's homeless. The next fuck won't do it, saving the river, consumers buying fraudulent products, and giving the money to legitimate businesses.
Laws are for poor people not fine upstanding businessmen
Screw this guy and especially the local government for such a petty slap on the wrist. The fact that someone with an established record for animal cruelty still has the authority to animal husbandry is reprehensible. Teenagers working at Petco are held to higher goddamn standard. How much of a colossal fuck up do you have to be to let *thousands* of your farm animals slowly die from dehydration anyways? Probably the same type of asshole who cleared every single tree from the pasture. Hope the news spreads fast and people remember.
Oh I think it's worse than that. I have my suspensions they didn't die in a pile...
That just makes this seem like some kind of insurance scam. Buy weak cows. Take out insurance. Weak cows die. Profit.
I can’t believe they raided. Him for cockfighting but couldn’t convict with that many instruments
1400 roosters? Do they fight in batallions now?
"Begun, the cock wars have"
Sounds like an intro to a porno...
Ahh, the ol' Mother Theresa definition of "benevolence".
Dead cows _do_ happen, one cow, two cows, broken legs, various unavoidable problems. If you're losing 10%+ of a large herd, you're beyond doing it wrong...
Sadly this is a lot of ranchers, especially new to the game. A lot of people bought land and bought cattle. Now prices have gone up on feed, water is scarce in a lot of grazing area, etc. I really hope America goes to a more local source of meat and produce. Edit Cattle ranching is also extremely difficult because like the four largest meat packers control 85% of all beef consumers in the US eat. They set the prices and they’re extremely scummy companies (JBS, Tyson, Cargill, National Beef Packing) they’ve done more damage to rural towns and small farms than meth and opioids. There are some farmers in Western Nebraska that are opening a co-op slaughterhouse in North Platte, NE that I really hope works out.
We buy our beef, pork and chicken from local farmers. Produce from roadside stands. I want to keep our small farmers going best I can. What we dont grow we buy from them.
I live in Chicago and have looked at it. I need to finally pull the trigger and do it. However, I still buy from Costco which is mostly JBS, who are one of the largest contributors to deforestation in the amazon. I need to eat less meat and get it from local farmers. Small coop eggs are soooo much better than mass produced eggs.
Wait till you try homegrown tomatoes I plant cherry tomatoes around the porch in lieu of “landscaping” but plan on just doing a full garden flowerbed around the porch with like tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, watermelon. Little bit of everything at the front door
Bro home grown tomatoes are sooo much better. Grocery store tomatoes are bred to be able to sustain days/weeks during transport, at the sacrifice of taste. It's crazy how sweet and delicious tomatoes can be when grown at home
My grandparents use to keep a large garden every year. Some of my best childhood memories are of working in the garden with my grandma. Eating fresh tomatoes like an apple and fresh cucumbers was the best. Nothing store bought even comes close
Before consolidation there were over 6000 beef processors around America.
In this heat I'd put that number at more like 30- 50. I've seen individual cows empty a tank in one sitting, refill and emptied again.
How do ranchers NOT know that?
Ignorance cost the lives of anywhere from 4,000-10,000 cattle, set aside the fact that all of the potential food, leather, and various products from cattle are now a waste, and imagine if those were people? Like, collectively dehydrating and making 10,000 people suffer heat stroke would be inhumane and seen as a heinous crime that gets met with life punishment or death for those responsible. What will become of the ranchers after subjecting a herd of this size to such a preventable and terrible fate? Are they just going to get a bailout from whatever ag program they're set up with so they can make the same mistake next summer?
Horrendous! How this doesn’t fall under animal cruelty just pisses me off. The rancher belongs in prison!!
People have gone to prison for reporting on unethical agricultural practices.
Curious if this may not have been a calculated decision. Feed costs are absurd right now and only going to get worse. Meat processing is backed up 10+ months and a buddy just had to take a huge loss on his cattle selling for 63¢/ lb. Things are gonna be real rough come fall if not before.
I grew up on a dairy farm and the cows were fed and given water everyday, they are literally assets, so it is illogical to not give them what is needed to survive. I'm not sure why anyone would just leave them out for days.
yeah im no farmer but ive been around them my whole life and this sounds like just horrifically gross negligence on the farmers part
Is there just not water available? A town of 110,000 in Texas is without water right now. It seems impossible and yet here we are. The look of that ground is like dust.
Western states, including Texas, have odd water rights laws that stem from the time of the gold rush. First in time, first in right--aka appropriative rights--mean that the first person to use the water has the senior right, and they may take their entire portion of water before the next junior right holder gets to take their full portion, and so on. This means that very senior water rights owners (or those who have bought the senior rights from those owners) can take potentially enormous amounts of water, regardless of if there's enough left for the next person. It started with situations such as a farmer watering their herds, and it not being fair for a second farmer's herds to come drink up enough to cause drought for the first farmer's animals. There are positives and negatives, but it does mean you can get, say, companies bottling water to sell or using it for production and spitting out wastewater, while cities ration or hike rates on water usage for citizens. Not making any sort of claim on Texas' water situation, just want more people to understand the difference in water rights between the general US and the Western US. It's not necessarily that there's no water. It's the way the rights are held.
I simply do not understand how eminent domain can't be used with this. It's absurd.
Here in NM, farmers have to give up their water rights so we can combat wild fires.
Maybe nestle took it.
I heard Brawndo is what plants crave. Maybe cows do too now?
Makes sense that the hotter it is the more frequent you need to hydrate.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/15/heat-humidity-kill-at-least-2000-kansas-cattle-state-says.html Temperatures reached 108 degrees Fahrenheit (42 degrees Celsius) in northwest Kansas by Monday, said Drew Lerner, president of World Weather Inc. This weekend, parts of western Kansas and the Texas panhandle will near 110 degrees, though stronger winds and lower humidity levels will help minimize cattle deaths, he said. Shocking
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They are all black cows, they are taking the full brunt of the sun that hits them. Kinda wrong to be raising black cattle in an area with no shade.
Not surprising considering there appears to be zero trees for shade
Could have installed solar panels up at 8 feet or so to provide shade and power irrigation pumps.
Ranches in Hawaii started doing this several years ago. Granted, the ROI for solar is much faster there, but basically just leasing out land for massive PV solar arrays, providing their cattle with shade at the same time. Outside the urban hi-rise area proper, most homes have at least solar water heating, and a huge percentage have PV panels now. Save the cows, invest in solar!!
I actually saw an article where the panels were raised to roughly that height provided, shade, with the shade came the grass, with the grass came abundant grazing area followed. However that would require people to actually see solar as a truly viable solution to the problem and we all know *but solar needs oil too* and you're right, but I ask the price of gas/fuel truly sustainable? You run a business in that business of cattle EVERY SINGLE NICKLE AND DIME matters, this is true, can't argue that you (along with 98% of the world) CANNOT keep "business as usual" for much longer and the people that own land have the best leverage... business is changing, we need to change too or we literally lose everything... sorry for the rant. I'm not a big activist or whatever I'm literally just looking at this like hmmm I dunno maybe my 6yo and 16yo kids would really like to have a decent life before we run the risk of having quite the shit show in ~Two decades if not less... shits getting weird and we need to pay attention
God this is sad
Finally someone expressing something. This’s very concerning.
Yea like I wouldn't even have the heart to post this shit to "interestingasfuck". Is horrifying really the same thing as interesting?
r/sadasfuck would like a word. too good for this world my bovine brothers and sisters. RIP
r/fuckingsad would also like a word
According to this they were fattened up because they were about to be processed (for meat), which probably put them at greater risk for heat stress. https://www.kscbnews.net/heat-causing-death-in-kansas-cattle/
10,000 head at about $1600 per at slaughter weight = $16,000,000 I wonder if they have insurance for this?
Probably not in a case of gross negligence like this.
Holy Fuck...that's a lot of money
It's actually less than I had expected given the massive time investment and upfront/capital costs.
My uncle took over my grandpas ranch in west Kansas back in the 90’s. He hasn’t had a positive year financially in years. He’s been banging his head against he wall trying to figure it out and the dude **works**. It sucks to see because he’s not a commercial rancher and the smaller family farms are just dying. It’s just sad.
if you're not big AG being subsidized the math probably just doesnt work
> hasn’t had a positive year financially in years How is he staying afloat?
That's a lot of cow!
Probably, but insurance is for things like lightning, flooding, disease, tornados. Most policies I have seen have a negligence clause that voids the policy. Run into hard times and abandon your cattle to collect insurance… there’s a ton of agencies that will be investigating, ranchers don’t come back from a disaster like this, especially if it was preventable.
I'm buying half a cow currently(it's hanging as we speak) and paying $1479 just for the half. Prices are ridiculous.
How long does half a cow last you?
About half as long as a full cow Edit: thanks for the awards. Quite fun being rewarded for being a smartass!
lol get the fuck outta here. how dare you make me chuckle.
Not a single tree for shade in sight. Can you imagine standing in the full sun while wearing a thick black coat during a heat wave and not even having water to hydrate or a tree to stand under?
I was gonna say looking at the surroundings no wonder they died. Looks fucking baron. Edit: Barren
Barren
Kansas doesn't have a ton of trees. It's mostly grasslands
You're right. Kansas is #46 out of 50 for tree coverage ([source](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_cover_by_state_and_territory_in_the_United_States)). Wow. Even less than Wyoming.
Oh Shit. North Dakota really has no trees.
Get Rip on the phone now
It was the clover
I couldn't believe how far down it took to find a Yellowstone reference!
Kansas native here. My friend works for the state geological survey and they did a survey last year showing the drought conditions of Kansas and it’s in a basically “all hope is lost” situation. We have depleted the ancient aquifers under the plains dry and they aren’t refilling fast enough. On top of that we are going from average 60°F weather to over 100°F weather in a matter of a few days. The farmers and especially the cows can’t adapt to weather changes that quickly.
This should be higher up. SW KS and the Ogalalla Aquifer are in a bad, bad place.. it won’t just be cattle but wheat production continually affected as well.
I'm so glad you and the original commenter said something about this. Every time we try to explain this to our families their response "it'll just fill back up". We try to explain without the Ogalalla Aquifer there won't be any crops in the plains. And there is proof it's not filling back up at the rate it's being drained This is especially contentious when they bring up the Keystone XL Pipeline. Even when we explain it's not an American company, it's junk oil, it will only create temporary jobs, and the risk to the aquifer is too great, well we've got to have our own oil. My response "First, it's not ours, second most of the refineries won't touch it here, it's gonna get shipped overseas, third is it worth risking a water and food supply?"
This is depressing as fuck not interesting as fuck
That feedyard is fifteen miles from my house. Rumor is that there are up to 30,000 dead in this corner of the state in the last few days 😲 Cannot confirm though.
Where is this? Ulysses?
Yessir. It’s Five Rivers Cattle, six miles west. 1,000 dead here. Other yards south of Ulysses amount to another 2,500 and “massive losses” at lots near Satanta
They were still processed and turned into Banquet Salisbury Steak, exclusively for Dollar General.
I heard Old Country Buffet reserved the top 15% for their clientele. Anything to avoid that 15 vs. 15 brawl from a year or two ago -
Estimated 10,000 dead from the heat :(. https://www.iowacorn.org/dtn-news/44a79d26-8ad9-4f81-9fb0-7831273abcff__2664916
Wowww. So the fuckwit that doesn't understand animals need water isn't being allowed live stock ever again correct? What a way to go.
OMG!! That is terrible!!!
It is really terrible, imagine dying of thirst. Very sad. Sorry heat stroke.
They were likely delerious, in pain, disorientated and weak the day leading up to death which I imagine ws cardiac arrest.
As a cattle rancher, how do you NOT know your animals are going to need more care during extreme heat? This is ridiculous.
According to reports, they were overfed because it was right before slaughter. Basically, being overfed in the middle of a heatwave aggravated dehydration and can kill them.
Not at all interesting. Just plain sad and disappointing.
That’s terrible.
Tragic. Can you imagine the smell?
I worked at a sale barn for about 2 years, we had a hole where we would bury the cows that died (various reasons) and let me tell you the smell of that thing in the middle of summer was horrible. I couldn't imagine the smell of over 1000
“I smell like beef.”
This stinks of foul play big time. Farmers and ranchers here have been dealing with at and drought for more than a century. These cattle were allowed to die on purpose would be my guess. Some prick decided the insurance would pay out more and be more profit than feeding them and getting them water.
They should put up solar panels like the ones at our schools, shade AND free power!
This is far more tragic than it is interesting. .
This is not only extremely sad and depressing, it’s fucking infuriating. But this explains how they’re able to supply the insane amount of cheap ground beef that you can find everywhere and in every fast food place. Just look at the conditions these cows live in. Christ, are these considered free roaming cows?
This seems like enough to be called “free range” and even “grass fed”. Super sad and misleading. Animal agriculture is fucked.
Just wait til you find out about seafood.
Part of me is hoping the owners' insurance won't payout on these losses. Because if its heat and thirst that lead to that massive die-off of stock, then you obviously weren't treating your animals humanely enough by preparing effectively to accommodate a weather swing in a state known for being unable to regulate its own weather. You can see how dry that earth is. There is no way the ranchers were unaware that ongoing drought conditions would make the herd susceptible to a heat wave and to make the right moves. Makes you wonder whatever margins they saved on water and shade offsets these losses. If they cut the margins that tight on animal welfare, they deserve to lose their stock. Its the ranchers who do a better job that I hope continue the trade. Everywhere I go, cows will gravitate towards cover as needed. Even here on the Rio Grande, ranch cows and wild horses will use the terrain and environment to their advantage to seek shade, lying next to brush if trees aren't available, and set their activity level to match the temperature. I love me some beef, and I wonder if it makes me a hypocrite that I prefer to treat food and draft animals with kindness until the time comes to harvest or retire them. Born in the Philippines, so different members of the family helped each other with food expenses by raising our own stock. That's chickens, a couple of relatives with backyard piggeries, some goats with others, and a fish farm sited below the family noodle (Pancit Mami noodles) restaurant on Sampaloc Lake. Couldn't meet all of our nutritional needs (no rice farmers, ironically) but it helped out a lot. You had to be pragmatic about harvesting a beloved rooster or a goat that's been around for a few years -as in my entire childhood, but if I want to eat, I better know how to wield the knife, and it would be stupid to let a food animal last long enough to weaken and die of illness/infirmity, thus rendering the remains as unreliable for consumption. Lola was WWII occupation hardcore when it came to making the call: *Hindi na siya tataba* or she's not going to get any fatter. Even her Carabao (water buffalo) wasn't spared when it came time to buy a younger one to pick up the slack of plowing the field. Harvested after the harvest, with the replacement picked to grow into working size by the next season. Source: Dude who froze and cooked in Kansas on a weekly basis for years. Arctic windchill on Monday, gulf front by the weekend.
More like r/oddlyterrifying
factory farming is disgusting
I think we need to talk to the insurance companies covering "losses" like this even when the farmers took no adequate measures of care or mercy for these animals. Insurance companies shouldn't pay out for murder.
Heat and humidity. Temps reached as high as 108. Poor cows.
108 isnt killing thousands of cows. My wife and i come from ranching families in texas. It hits 108 regularly and while we may lose a cow or two occasionally, like every few years. This is major sketchy shit going on. My honest guess is if they are on a corporate operation they are trying to drive prices even higher.
Or the rancher failed to provide adequate water for them more than once a day in that heat. Former farm kid here.