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Thousands of Kansas cattle have died in recent days due to high heat and humidity, hitting one of the country’s leading cattle-producing states as the industry struggles with extreme weather and rising production costs associated with the war in Ukraine. .
At least 2,000 cattle are known to have died by Tuesday, a spokesman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said, according to Reuters. That number is based on the number of requests the agency has received to help dispose of the bodies, he said.
With more than 6.5 million cattle raised in the state, Kansas has the nation’s third-largest cattle industry, after Texas and Nebraska.
In the last month, the National Drought Tracking Instrument has issued two statements warning that northwestern and north-central Kansas are facing drought conditions. Eight counties received extreme drought warnings.
Temperatures rose to more than 100 degrees over the weekend in many parts of the state, sending the animals under heat stress, according to data from Kansas State University. High humidity levels and a lack of cooling wind complicated the heat and helped create a punitive environment for livestock.
The 100-degree high is expected to continue until at least Friday, but stronger winds and lower humidity could reduce cattle deaths, agricultural meteorologist Drew Lerner told Reuters.
“It will be depressingly hot and stressful for the animals,” Lerner added.
Horse graves in the steppes, when Kazakhstan is beaten by one of the worst droughts in the living memory
The economic consequences of the war in Ukraine have reverberated around the world, affecting industries that depend on key Russian and Ukrainian agricultural products. The price of beef, pork and poultry has risen significantly in the United States, in part because animal feed, such as corn, accounts for 60 percent of livestock costs. Ukraine is one of the largest producers of corn in the world.
Scientists have also found a link between heat stress among livestock and climate change. In March, a peer-reviewed study by an international group of researchers concluded that the global livestock sector could lose between $ 15 billion and $ 40 billion each year by the end of the century, depending on greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the authors, beef and dairy production in the United States is expected to decline by 6.8% before the next century, although the losses are likely to disproportionately affect farmers in tropical regions of South America, Africa and Asia.
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