The loss adds to potential food shortages nationwide.
QUICK FACTS:
- Excessive heat in the state of Kansas has led to the deaths of 10,000 head of cattle in feedlots across the state.
- Temperatures reported as high as 104 degrees plus humidity, and virtually no air movement, have created a deadly environment in the heatwave, with an epicenter in Ulysses, Kansas.
- Humidity levels ranged from 18% to 35% in the area where just days before the start of the June 11 heat wave, the highs were in the 80s.
- While losses in feedlots due to heat stress begin around June every year, this year’s “perfect storm” without an opportunity for nighttime cooling, has caused increased losses in feedlots and grazing animals.
- These losses, combined with damage or closure of almost 100 food manufacturing plants have some concerned that food shortages could be inevitable.
REASON FOR THE DANGER TO CATTLE:
- “Heat stress doesn’t happen all at one time,” veterinarian A.J. Tarpoff said in regard to the losses. “Cattle accumulate heat during the day, and then over the nighttime hours, it takes four to six hours for them to dissipate that heat,” said Tarpoff.
- “As long as we have a cooling effect at night, cattle can mostly handle the heat. Where we run into issues is where we have two to four days in a row of minimal nighttime cooling, and we start the day with the heat load we accumulated the day before still there,” Tarpoff went on to say.
- “The second week of June is when, historically, we start to see this, and I think a lot of it has to do with the hair coat. Cattle can adapt to almost any environment on earth, but they need time. At this point in the season, a lot of them have not fully shed that winter hair coat and slicked off,” he said, adding that the majority of the U.S. cow herd is black in color and unable to cool as efficiently.
BACKGROUND:
- The United States Department of Agriculture has insisted that there are no food shortages and that the administration is closely monitoring the food supply chain.
- When asked if they can offer assurances to access to food the department said they were “ready to assist” in a “government-wide effort” to make sure Americans have food in times of need, like emergency or disaster situations.
