Cattle in southern Manitoba were crushed to death when barns protecting them from last week’s blizzard collapsed under fierce winds and record amounts of snow.
Richard Hodges, a veterinarian at the Pembina Valley vet clinic in Pilot Mound, said at least two of his clients spent the early part of last week digging cows out of the frozen ruins.
And there were likely more, he said. On April 10, a farmer near Snowflake was still missing 20 head. A second farmer lost two animals when the roof of his barn crashed on six cattle and one calf trapped inside.
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Other accidents reported
Carla Pouteau, the agricultural representative in Pilot Mound, said she heard similar stories of animals that had to be put down after their backs were broken by wind-shorn shelters.
“Some suffocated but others were injured and had to be destroyed,” she said.
Hodges also heard cows were trapped in open-ended structures that became plugged with snow. Some producers had trouble finding their herds after animals wandered over fences covered by drifts.
After waiting out the storm on her dairy farm near Mariapolis, Pouteau said she wasn’t surprised to hear the extent of blizzard damage.
At meetings in Winnipeg late last week, Hodges said all the news dealt with Winnipeg fallout from the blizzard, despite the many rural implications.
“You listen to the radio stations and they’re talking about how garbage delivery will be held up and people in the country are digging out their cattle,” she said. “It’s frustrating.”
