Over 650 Kansas cattle sent to landfill or buried in 2023
KANSAS (KSNT) - The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) says hundreds of cattle were 'disposed of' after a heatwave shocked feedlots in 2023.
Last year feedlots reported numerous cattle deaths after record-breaking heat in eastern Kansas. In some areas, heat indexes were over 130 degrees making for ‘unprecedented’ conditions for feedlots.
27 News made a Kansas Open Records Act request with the KDHE on Aug. 24, 2023, requesting data on feedlot cattle deaths in the east Kansas region. The KDHE responded to the request on June 5, 2024.
In total, 672 cattle were documented as being disposed of during the heatwave. The KDHE said they don't know the total figures because some cattle were sent to rendering.
The KDHE is only notified when dead cattle are disposed of in landfills or buried.
From Aug. 19 to Aug. 23, 2023, temperatures were consistently above 100 degrees with night temperatures staying above 70 degrees. Throughout the day, cattle will accumulate heat load and dissipate the heat at night when temperatures are cooler, according to the Kansas Livestock Association (KLA).
“We have had some cattle loss we’re attributing to heat, losses are never good but given the severity of this heat dome, we’re doing incredibly well,” Tiffany Cattle Company Owner and Chief Operations Officer Shawn Tiffany said last year. Tiffany operates feedlots in McPherson, Morris and Lyon counties. “The cattle we’ve lost already had some respiratory challenges at some point in their lives. Those are the animals you’d expect to have issues in this kind of weather.”
In 2022, at least 2,000 cattle died during a heatwave in southwest Kansas. The temperature was 102 degrees in and around Garden City and Dodge City on June 12 and 13. In 2022, Beef Veterinarian with Kansas State University Research and Extension A.J. Tarpoff said heat stress accounts for about $370 million in yearly losses for the beef cattle industry.
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