The 69 cattle found dead in a Saskatchewan community pasture last month were severely dehydrated, likely due to human error.
The pasture rider has been fired, and the manager has been re-assigned.
“These results support a herd diagnosis attributing the death of these cattle to water deprivation or water restriction,” said Saskatchewan Agriculture’s assistant deputy minister Ernie Spencer at a Sept. 11 news conference. “No evidence points to any influence from toxins, diseases, viruses or water quality.”
The cattle were found Aug. 18 in the Meyronne Community Pasture in southwestern Saskatchewan. They had been moved to a new field Aug. 2. Water in that field is supplied by pipeline to a trough.
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“We know there was water in this trough when they were moved in,” Spencer said.
The trough contains a float valve to automatically fill it, but there is also a hand valve that must be turned on to open the water from the pipeline, he said.
“The best information we have … was that the float valve was working fine,” he said.
It’s not known how long the cattle were without water. More than 100 surviving animals were gaunt. As well, about 10 other cattle are still missing, and Spencer said staff won’t know exactly how many or to whom they belong until the cattle are removed from the pasture later this fall.
Spencer said veterinarians have said it can take between five and nine days for animals to die of water deprivation, depending on temperature and moisture content of their feed.
He said the department will compensate the owners of the cattle, Norm Bouvier and Calvin Gavelin.
The two men were at a meeting with other pasture patrons Sept. 11 and unavailable for comment. They had previously estimated their losses at $50,000 each.
A three-person panel, including a representative of the patrons, the agriculture department and an independent chair, will be struck to determine an appropriate level of compensation.
As well, a five-person committee will conduct a province-wide review of the community pasture system. The committee will include a patron representing each of the three pasture regions in the province (northwest, northeast and south), a representative from the cattle industry’s Quality Starts Here program and an outside expert on community pasture systems.
Spencer said an interim report is expected next March 31, with a final report July 1, 2001.
