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This winter may go down as one of the meanest years prairie farmers and their livestock have experienced.
For cattle producers in North and South Dakota the death losses are climbing due to mountains of snow and bone-jarring cold. There is no figure on how many animals have died from bad weather and starvation although guesses range from 35,000 to 100,000.
An official from South Dakota’s Farm Service Agency said the death toll as of Jan. 17 was 35,000 head and the United States Department of Agriculture was in the process of updating that total.
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“It’s the toughest winter I’ve ever lived through,” said Dale Greenwood, who runs a cow-calf farm near Cartwright, N.D. “We won’t have a handle on livestock losses for some time to come.”
The hardest hit region is the northern third of South Dakota and the southern third of North Dakota. In January, the wind chill forced the temperature down to -45 C. Snowdrifts are close to 4.5 metres high.
As president of the North Dakota Stockman’s Association, Greenwood and his counterparts from South Dakota met with U.S. agriculture secretary Dan Glickman at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association convention in Kansas City, Mo. to discuss the disaster.
Request for help
In their meeting, the cattle producers asked for low interest loans to replace dead livestock and rebuild cowherds.
A feed assistance program amounting to about $7 a cow is also available. That provides less than a week’s worth of feed, Greenwood said.
USDA recently announced a new cost-share assistance program to help producers provide feed for storm-stricken livestock in the Dakotas and 35 contiguous counties following a tour of the region Jan. 31 by deputy agriculture secretary Richard Rominger.
For some it’s too late.
Cattle are in poor condition because many people can’t get feed to their stock. Others are running out of feed because in ordinary years ranchers rely on winter grazing for close to half of their rations. This is unavailable this year because animals can’t forage for grass under the deep, hard snow, said Greenwood.
Further, there’s no hay for sale in Greenwood’s area.
“I have not talked to anyone who feels they have an adequate supply of feed,” he said.
No one could plan for such a winter and almost no one carries insurance, said Tonya Ness. She is executive secretary of the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association and lives on a ranch in the central part of the state.
National Guard helps
With frozen drifts of snow reaching five metres, the National Guard was called in to plow roads in South Dakota. One county road took them 21 hours to plow, said Ness.
“Most farmers have the equipment to get themselves out, but when you’re talking 10-foot drifts the tractors aren’t getting around them.”
In some parts of South Dakota children have attended less than 10 days of school since the Christmas break because of blocked roads and endless blizzards.
Ness and Greenwood said wildlife is suffering as well. Deer are raiding haystacks and corn piles. Game birds hiding in tall grasses for protection smothered when snow covered their habitat.
Two weeks ago Greenwood found 30 pheasants burrowed into his haystack for protection.
Conversations with wildlife officers indicate antelope and birds are almost wiped out. Deer populations may drop by half.
Depending how long the snow lasts, flooding could be a serious problem in some regions this spring. Lakes and rivers are already full, said Ness.
While the area has been declared a disaster area by the federal government, a major problem facing farmers is a lack of disaster aid programs.
Glickman told reporters at an NCBA press conference there will have to be an effort to improve crop insurance for American farmers.
“We have to face the fact there are no programs for assistance or else Congress will have to come up with a program with some resources,” he told reporters.
