Last year at this time, an unexpected early season blizzard in South Dakota killed over 40,000 head of cattle. Many ranchers were caught unprepared by the unseasonable weather and had not moved their cattle to their winter pastures yet, which increased the losses. Cattle were also still in summer coats and were soaked by the rain and snow, which increased mortality. Farmers had to deal with the impacts of many carcasses as well as the loss of stock. Today AgWeb provided a retrospective on the storm and its lingering impacts on herd size. You can read the story by clicking here.
Scientists at South Dakota State University extension studied the storm and concluded that the blizzard could not be attributed to climate change., but were in the range of expected variability. Visit Science Daily for the story.