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Why ‘thousands’ of cows are dying, sparking crisis in California
Several central San Joaquin Valley counties have issued emergency proclamations to prevent a pile-up of cow carcasses killed from the recent stretch of scorching temperatures.
County agriculture officials estimate livestock operators may be seeing an increase of 50 to 100% in mortality. The rising death rate poses a potential disposal disaster for farmers and ranchers who rely on rendering plants to haul away their dead livestock.
The problem is Baker Commodities in Kerman is the regions only rendering plant servicing hundreds of farmers and ranchers. And the Kerman plant is at capacity.
“They told us that with the heat causing more deaths, they are starting to fall a little behind, and it is going to take them a day or two to catch up,” said Tom Tucker, Tulare County agricultural commissioner.
To avoid cow carcasses piling up on farms, Tulare, Kings, and Fresno counties issued emergency proclamations giving livestock operators options for disposing of their dead animals.
Tucker said he does not have a firm number on how many cows have succumbed to more than a month’s worth of triple-digit temperatures. But it could be hundreds, if not thousands.
“We have just close to 300 dairy animal operations throughout Tulare County, and if everyone just lost a couple of animals a day, you are adding up into the thousands,” Tucker said. “Now, perhaps not everyone has lost some animals, but when it’s over 100 degrees, it really builds up on everybody.”
Melissa Cregan, Fresno County Agricultural Commissioner, said her office has been working with the Fresno County Department of Public Health and the California Department of Food and Agriculture to come up with a temporary solution.
One of the options is to compost the animal on the property. Another option is to take it to the landfill in Kettleman City that is approved for taking animal carcasses. But it must be taken by an approved hauler.
If you want to use it as fertilizer, it can only be used on non-farm land and with permission from the regional water quality control board.
“These aren’t perfect alternatives, but we can’t just have carcasses piling out there because that becomes a health hazard,” Cregan said. “Under normal conditions, this isn’t an issue, but this is a different situation.”
Cregan said Valley farmers have dealt with this situation before, most recently in February, when Baker Commodities temporarily went offline for repairs.
Three years ago, a June heatwave coupled with an equipment failure at Baker, created another cow crisis.
Fresno County Supervisor Buddy Mendes said under these current conditions, it doesn’t take long for cow carcasses to begin stacking up.
“When you have temperatures up over 105, and it doesn’t cool off at night, you will see an abnormal number of dead animals,” he said. “And if the rendering plant starts falling behind, even if it is just a day or two, then it can become a bigger issue. This is all about capacity.”
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