Estimated 20000 cows killed by New Mexico blizzard | Animals | Forums

Holy crap, didn't know they got hit that hard

Parts of the Southwest were hammered with snow over the weekend thanks to winter storm Goliath. Dairy farmers in Clovis, N.M., are still digging out even though the snow has stopped. Authorities estimate thousands of cows will be lost because of the storm.

Robert Hagevoort is a dairy Extension agent in the area with New Mexico State University. He says quantifying cow losses at this time is tough, but he estimates about 5% death loss on milking cows and double that on young stock.

“Consider our average herd size is 2,300 cows, and we’ve got 150 dairies in our area,” he explains. “At 5% loss, that’s more than 20,000 cows.”

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