The heartbreak of livestock loss multiplied beyond comprehension

It’s not uncommon to have a few inches of snow in early October, and the cattle weather it fine. But then something changed. The temperature dropped, the wind picked up, and the rain that had drenched the livestock and driven them to find shelter turned into heavy, wet, relentless snow. Unable to reach their livestock, ranchers had no choice but look out the window and pray. When the storm lifted, it was difficult to see the devastation because much of it was buried. The sun came out and settled the snow, and when people finally snowmobiled or plowed their way out, they began to realize that this storm would change their lives. Farmers checked unharvested fields only to find them full of dead cattle who had sought shelter any place they could find it. Ranchers went searching for cattle, following trails of carcasses for miles to pick up a few weak survivors far away from where they were at the start of the storm. Motorists drove past heaps of cattle along the fencelines, dead from hypothermia or suffocation or exhaustion. Horses perished, tangled in wire they could not see in the blinding snowstorm. The numbers of dead livestock were staggering. No one was sure how many were dead, partly because they were still buried, and partly because people didn’t want to keep counting...more