Texas Panhandle ranchers face losses and grim task of removing dead cattle killed by wildfires

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Source: Associated Press

Texas Panhandle ranchers face losses and grim task of removing dead cattle killed by wildfires

BY SEAN MURPHY AND JIM VERTUNO
Updated 7:30 PM EST, March 1, 2024

SKELLYTOWN, Texas (AP) — First, the flames came storming across the vistas of the Texas Panhandle, burning through the grassy plains and scrub land of the region’s cattle ranches.

By Friday, ranchers faced a grim task: Search miles of scorched earth to dispose of the burned corpses of cattle. Others too badly burned and injured in this week’s historic wildfires to survive will be euthanized.

“We’re picking up deads today,” X-Cross-X Ranch operator Chance Bowers said as ranch hands used a bulldozer to move dozens of blackened carcasses into a line on the side of a dirt road. From there, a giant claw hook put them into the back of open trailer.

These cattle were found near a fence line that cut through a vast expanse of charred scrub brush and ash left in every direction after the flames whipped through. They will be sent to a rendering plant rather than buried.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/texas-panhandle-wildfires-dead-cattle-2f9dde9ef57f554be1a984ca4ac0ec8f