How many Texas Panhandle cows died in largest wildfire in state history

By Friday, ranchers faced a grim task: Search miles of scorched earth to dispose of the burned corpses of cattle. Others too badly burned and injured in this week’s historic wildfires to survive will be euthanized.

“We’re picking up deads today,” X-Cross-X Ranch operator Chance Bowers said as ranch hands used a bulldozer to move dozens of blackened carcasses into a line on the side of a dirt road. From there, a giant claw hook put them into the back of open trailer.

These cattle were found near a fence line that cut through a vast expanse of charred scrub brush and ash left in every direction after the flames whipped through. They will be sent to a rendering plant rather than buried.

Ranchers and state officials do not yet know the overall number of cattle killed in wildfires that have burned 1,950 square miles (5,050 square kilometers), briefly shut down a nuclear power plant, charred hundreds of homes and other structures, and left two people dead. For some ranches, the impact could be severe, though the effect on consumer beef prices is likely to be minimal.

“These cows you see dead are worth between $2,500 and $3,000 apiece,” Bowers said. “Financially, it’s a massive, massive burden on us.”

Texas is the nation’s top cattle producer. Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller has said the number of dead “range” cattle is likely in the thousands. Although the Panhandle has more than 85% of the state’s herd, most are in feedlots and dairies that were not damaged.

The cause of the fires remains under investigation, although strong winds, dry grass and unseasonably warm weather fed them.

Bowers said the X-Cross-X ranch expects to lose at least 250 of the 1,000 cattle it had on three area ranches, either from burns or smoke inhalation.

“We were right in…