CaseyJones
10-14-2013, 04:15 PM
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-rt-usa-weathercattle-20131014,0,2367271.story
The storm was just so sudden, South
Dakota cattle rancher Kathy Jobgen remembers.
A freezing rain, followed by an avalanche of four feet of
snow and winds of 70 miles an hour, hit thousands of cattle
still grazing on "summer pastures" at a time when the animals
had not yet grown their protective winter coats and were ill
prepared for the harsh conditions.
Swirling snow lodged in some of the animals' lungs,
suffocating them. Hypothermia killed more. And others were
caught in gullies, or plunged off slickened rock ledges,
livestock experts said.
"I've been in this business 50 years and I've never seen
anything like this," said Jobgen, who estimated her family lost
nearly half of its herd of 350 when the storm swept through Oct.
3-5. "The vision of seeing all these cattle dead is something
you can't wipe out of our eyes."
The storm was just so sudden, South
Dakota cattle rancher Kathy Jobgen remembers.
A freezing rain, followed by an avalanche of four feet of
snow and winds of 70 miles an hour, hit thousands of cattle
still grazing on "summer pastures" at a time when the animals
had not yet grown their protective winter coats and were ill
prepared for the harsh conditions.
Swirling snow lodged in some of the animals' lungs,
suffocating them. Hypothermia killed more. And others were
caught in gullies, or plunged off slickened rock ledges,
livestock experts said.
"I've been in this business 50 years and I've never seen
anything like this," said Jobgen, who estimated her family lost
nearly half of its herd of 350 when the storm swept through Oct.
3-5. "The vision of seeing all these cattle dead is something
you can't wipe out of our eyes."