{"id":570632,"date":"2023-04-17T22:50:58","date_gmt":"2023-04-17T19:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/18000-cows-killed-in-explosion-fire-at-texas-dairy-farm-may-be-largest-cattle-killing-ever\/"},"modified":"2023-04-17T22:50:58","modified_gmt":"2023-04-17T19:50:58","slug":"18000-cows-killed-in-explosion-fire-at-texas-dairy-farm-may-be-largest-cattle-killing-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/18000-cows-killed-in-explosion-fire-at-texas-dairy-farm-may-be-largest-cattle-killing-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"#18,000 cows killed in explosion, fire at Texas dairy farm may be largest cattle killing ever"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3dcb648b02c\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3dcb648b02c\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/18000-cows-killed-in-explosion-fire-at-texas-dairy-farm-may-be-largest-cattle-killing-ever\/#Where_was_the_Texas_cattle_fire\" >Where was the Texas cattle fire?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/18000-cows-killed-in-explosion-fire-at-texas-dairy-farm-may-be-largest-cattle-killing-ever\/#What_caused_the_dairy_farm_explosion\" >What caused the dairy farm explosion?\u00a0<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/18000-cows-killed-in-explosion-fire-at-texas-dairy-farm-may-be-largest-cattle-killing-ever\/#How_many_cows_were_killed_in_the_dairy_fire\" >How many cows were killed in the dairy fire?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/18000-cows-killed-in-explosion-fire-at-texas-dairy-farm-may-be-largest-cattle-killing-ever\/#How_did_the_Texas_dairy_compare_with_the_rest_of_the_country\" >How did the Texas dairy compare with\u00a0the rest of the country?\u00a0\u00a0<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/18000-cows-killed-in-explosion-fire-at-texas-dairy-farm-may-be-largest-cattle-killing-ever\/#What_happens_next\" >What happens next?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"exclude-from-newsgate\"><em>Corrections &amp; clarifications:\u00a0A previous\u00a0version of this story miscalculated the number of head\u00a0of cattle slaughtered each day in the U.S.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The fire spread quickly through the holding pens, where thousands of dairy cows crowded together waiting to be milked, tr<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ed in deadly confines.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After subduing\u00a0the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amarillo.com\/story\/news\/2023\/04\/11\/1-injured-in-southfork-dairy-farms-fire-explosion-near-dimmitt\/70104654007\/\">fire at the west Texas dairy farm<\/a> Monday evening, officials were stunned at the scale of livestock death\u00a0left behind: 18,000 head\u00a0of cattle perished in the fire at the South Fork Dairy farm near Dimmitt, Texas \u2013\u00a0or about 20% of the cattle slaughtered in America on any given day.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A dairy farm worker rescued\u00a0from inside the structure was taken to a\u00a0hospital and was in critical but stable condition as of Tuesday. There were no other human casualties.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"exclude-from-newsgate\"><strong style=\"margin-right:3px\">Special report: <\/strong>&#8216;We don\u2019t seem to learn&#8217;: The West, Texas, fertilizer plant explosion, 10 years later<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s mind-boggling,&#8221; Dimmitt Mayor Roger Malone said. &#8220;I don\u2019t think it&#8217;s ever happened before around here. It&#8217;s a real tragedy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Castro County Sheriff's Office was among several agencies to respond to a fire and explosion at a dairy farm near Dimmitt on Monday.\" data-uuid=\"cc9ec193-ee30-34d5-9314-13dfd03aaf6a\" height=\"960\" id=\"11642454002\" src=\"https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aol_usatoday_us_articles_590\/4942f2c9f3eeab600c3130d125485d4d\" width=\"720\"><\/p>\n<p>It was the biggest single-incident death of cattle in the country since the Animal Welfare Institute, a Washington-based animal advocacy group, began tracking barn and farm fires in 2013.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Graphics<\/strong>: How many cows died in dairy fire? 18,000, enough for 26 football fields<\/p>\n<p>That easily surpassed the previous high:\u00a0a 2020 fire at an upstate New York dairy farm that consumed about 400 cows, said\u00a0Allie Granger, a policy associate at the institute.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Texas fire &#8220;is the deadliest fire involving cattle we know of,&#8221; she said. &#8220;In\u00a0the past, we have seen fires\u00a0involving several hundred\u00a0cows\u00a0at a time,\u00a0but nothing anything near this level of mortality.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"presto-h2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Where_was_the_Texas_cattle_fire\"><\/span>Where was the Texas cattle fire?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Castro County, site of the fire, is open\u00a0prairie land dotted with dairy farms and cattle ranches\u00a0about 70 miles southwest of Amarillo.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pictures posted on <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social media<\/a> by bystanders showed the large plume of black smoke lifting from the farm fire, as well as charred cows that were saved from the structure.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>.oembed-frame {width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;border:0;}<\/p>\n<div class=\"oembed-frame\"><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"presto-h2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_caused_the_dairy_farm_explosion\"><\/span>What caused the dairy farm explosion?\u00a0<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A malfunction in a piece of farm equipment may have caused an explosion that led to the fire, said County Judge Mandy Gfeller, the county&#8217;s top executive. Texas fire officials are still investigating the cause, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Malone, the mayor, said he wasn&#8217;t aware of any other fires reported at the facility.\u00a0He said the dairy had opened in the area just over three years ago and employed 50 to 60 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The owners of South Fork Dairy couldn&#8217;t be reached for comment.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"presto-h2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_many_cows_were_killed_in_the_dairy_fire\"><\/span>How many cows were killed in the dairy fire?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Most of the perished animals \u2013\u00a0a mix of Holstein and Jersey cows \u2013\u00a0were in a large\u00a0holding pen before being milked, she said. The\u00a018,000 cows\u00a0represented about 90% of the farm&#8217;s total herd.<\/p>\n<p>With each cow valued roughly at about $2,000, the company&#8217;s losses in\u00a0livestock could stretch into the tens of millions of dollars, Gfeller said. That doesn&#8217;t include equipment and structure loss.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re looking at a devastating loss,&#8221; she said. &#8220;My heart goes out to each person involved in that operation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"presto-h2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_did_the_Texas_dairy_compare_with_the_rest_of_the_country\"><\/span>How did the Texas dairy compare with\u00a0the rest of the country?\u00a0\u00a0<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cattle stranded in a flooded pasture in La Grange, Texas, after Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The storm drowned thousands of cattle in southeast Texas.\" data-uuid=\"fd25a311-3447-3991-be07-af8f52a4636f\" height=\"1912\" id=\"11654040002\" src=\"https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aol_usatoday_us_articles_590\/d229e1343e15a561dac68e8bd796e594\" width=\"3000\"><\/p>\n<p>Texas ranks fourth nationally in milk production, home to\u00a0319 Grade A dairies\u00a0with an estimated\u00a0625,000 cows\u00a0producing\u00a0almost\u00a016.5 billion pounds of milk a year, according to the Texas Association of Dairymen, a trade group.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And Castro County is the second-highest-producing county in Texas, with 15 dairies yielding 148 million\u00a0pounds of milk a month, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Even by Texas standards, South Fork Dairy was a behemoth. Its 18,000\u00a0cattle\u00a0made it\u00a0nearly 10 times larger than the average dairy herd in Texas.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not the first time large numbers of Texas cattle have died, but rarely do so many perish from a single fire. A blizzard in December 2015<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.chron.com\/news\/houston-texas\/texas\/article\/20K-cattle-freeze-to-death-in-freak-Texas-blizzard-6738249.php\">killed off about 20,000 cattle<\/a> across the Texas Panhandle, according to the Texas Association of Dairymen.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And Hurricane Harvey in 2017\u00a0drowned thousands more in Southeast Texas, which led to $93 million in livestock losses across the state, according to Texas A&amp;M\u00a0AgriLife Extension Service.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"presto-h2\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_happens_next\"><\/span>What happens next?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>State and dairy officials are turning to the massive, messy task of cleaning up 18,000 charred carcasses. On its website, the Texas Commission on\u00a0Environmental Quality lists several rules for onsite burial of carcasses, including burying the animal at least 50 feet from the nearest well and recording GPS coordinates of the site.\u00a0Nowhere does it mention mass graves, however.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The environmental quality commission and the AgriLife Extension Service are teaming up to assist in the cleanup, officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Malone, Dimmitt&#8217;s mayor, said he has\u00a0taken emergency management courses that teach how to dispose of animal carcasses after a disaster \u2013 but not at this scale.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;How do you dispose of 18,000\u00a0carcasses?&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s something you just don\u2019t run into very much.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"exclude-from-newsgate\"><em>Follow Jervis on Twitter: @MrRJervis.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 18,000 cows killed in dairy farm fire in Dimmitt, Texas: What to know<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/news\/nation\/2023\/04\/13\/18-000-cows-killed-dairy-farm-fire-dimmitt-texas-what-know\/11651207002\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Corrections &amp; clarifications:\u00a0A previous\u00a0version of this story miscalculated the number of head\u00a0of cattle slaughtered each day in the U.S.\u00a0 The fire spread quickly through the holding pens, where thousands of dairy cows crowded together waiting to be milked, trapped in deadly confines.\u00a0 After subduing\u00a0the fire at the west Texas dairy farm Monday evening, officials were&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":570633,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/aol_usatoday_us_articles_590\/4942f2c9f3eeab600c3130d125485d4d","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-570632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}