Texas A&M Agrilife Extension agent provides wildfire update: 7,000 mother cows lost

HEMPHILL COUNTY, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — Texas A&M AgriLife Hemphill County Extension agent Andy Holloway shared that 7,000 mother cows were lost during the wildfire.

According to Holloway, this number does not include cows hauled off due to their udders or hooves being burned. It also does not include fall-born calf.

“What compounded this fire is, those cows were just ready to have their spring calves,” said Holloway. “A few of them already had calf and so the ranchers lost his factory, which is the mother cow. Then he’s lost his cash crop, which is her calf, it’s really hard financially.”

The loss of cattle has also had an emotional impact as some ranchers have also lost their homes.

“The cattle business is our way of life and here, ranchers feed and take care of their cattle before they take care of themselves,” said Holloway. “So they lost part of their family. When you go out and you see what you’ve spent decades producing, just lying there dead, or if you have to haul them off. There’s an emotional component to that. That’s off the charts. You don’t just get over that, you know, it takes time.”

According to Holloway, there are an estimated 23,000 heads of cattle and officials believe half, or more than half are dead or affected severely.

Holloway shared even though the area has experienced rain, it’s still a long way to recovery.

“It’s remarkable at how the grass is already greening up,” said Holloway. “Out on the sand hills, which is a large part of the Canadian River Valley, though sand hills are real delicate, and it takes a long time for them to recover.”

Aiding in the recovery efforts has been the outpouring of support locally and across the country.

“It makes me emotional real fast,” shared Holloway. “We’ve handled over 1000 Semi loads of hay of feed of fencing supplies, just to Canadian and that didn’t count what they got in Miami, Pampa and Borger, other places. On top of that we’ve had people from all over the United States that have come to just volunteer just to help.”

The help has come from people from all ages looking to make a difference.

“We had one little girl that was 12 years old,” said Holloway. “She had $10 and she wanted to give her $10 to the ranchers. Then we’ve had magnificent groups like the Amarillo Area Foundation, that have donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to our ranchers in our efforts. Thanks to many people here in the Texas panhandle that have contributed to those funds.”

Texas A&M AgriLife will still host their beef conference, Tuesday, April 23- Wednesday, April 24 at the Jones Pavilion in Canadian.

“We think it’s the most important conference we’ve ever had,” said Holloway. It’s going to be a time of healing. It’s also going to be a time to celebrate life. “it’s a time that we’re going to come together and socialize network and listen to some of the best speakers in the world and beef cattle production.”

General admission tickets are $150 and spouse tickets are $125. You can also purchase a ticket for a fire victim as a donation of $150.

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