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How a freak blizzard wrecked Texas's dairy industry
Source: Christian Science Monitor
How a freak blizzard wrecked Texas's dairy industry
Winter storm Goliath marked the end of 2015 by ripping through the Southwest,
hurting the dairy industry for months to come.
By Story Hinckley, Staff JANUARY 3, 2016
Dairy farmers in Texas and New Mexico say consumers can expect a milk shortage, after winter storm Goliath killed more than 30,000 dairy cows last week.
Goliath ripped through the Midwest and Northeast from Dec. 24 to Dec. 29, bringing snow, ice, and wind gusts as high as 80 miles per hour. Heavy winds buried the animals in snow drifts measuring up to 14 feet high, where they suffocted.
“We can’t really put into words what it’s like, other than we’re just doing everything we can to get through it,” New Mexican farmer Cliff Pirtle told KOAT7 Albuquerque. “When the meterologists first started talking about a blizzard on the eastern plains of New Mexico, I was like, ‘No, this is a desert. That’s not going to happen.’”
But its clear the desert areas of eastern New Mexico and western Texas are not immune to dangerous winter storms.
Like all agriculture, dairy producers always operate at the mercy of Mother Nature,” Darren Turley, Executive director of the Texas Association of Dairymen, said in a statement. “With Goliath, she dealt a particularly harsh and costly blow to the area’s dairy producers, from the death of thousands of livestock they spend so much time caring for to a loss of milk production over the weekend and in the future.”
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Winter storm Goliath marked the end of 2015 by ripping through the Southwest,
hurting the dairy industry for months to come.
By Story Hinckley, Staff JANUARY 3, 2016
Dairy farmers in Texas and New Mexico say consumers can expect a milk shortage, after winter storm Goliath killed more than 30,000 dairy cows last week.
Goliath ripped through the Midwest and Northeast from Dec. 24 to Dec. 29, bringing snow, ice, and wind gusts as high as 80 miles per hour. Heavy winds buried the animals in snow drifts measuring up to 14 feet high, where they suffocted.
“We can’t really put into words what it’s like, other than we’re just doing everything we can to get through it,” New Mexican farmer Cliff Pirtle told KOAT7 Albuquerque. “When the meterologists first started talking about a blizzard on the eastern plains of New Mexico, I was like, ‘No, this is a desert. That’s not going to happen.’”
But its clear the desert areas of eastern New Mexico and western Texas are not immune to dangerous winter storms.
Like all agriculture, dairy producers always operate at the mercy of Mother Nature,” Darren Turley, Executive director of the Texas Association of Dairymen, said in a statement. “With Goliath, she dealt a particularly harsh and costly blow to the area’s dairy producers, from the death of thousands of livestock they spend so much time caring for to a loss of milk production over the weekend and in the future.”
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Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2016/0103/How-a-freak-blizzard-wrecked-Texas-s-dairy-industry
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