It's Moo-derous: How a dairy farm explosion in Texas caused over 18,000 cow deaths

Numerous dairy cows were crammed together in the holding pens, waiting to be milked, and were therefore stuck in dangerous conditions as the fire quickly spread across them on Monday evening. Officials were shocked by the number of livestock deaths left behind after putting out the fire at the West Texas dairy farm. More than 18,000 cows died after an explosion and fire, marking the deadliest such barn blaze on record in the United States, according to Reuters. This is approximately 20 per cent of the cattle slaughtered in America on any given day, as per USA Today. As of Tuesday, the dairy farm worker who was pulled from the building was being treated at a hospital and was listed in critical but stable condition. There were no more fatalities among people. “It’s mind-boggling,” Dimmitt Mayor Roger Malone said, according to USA Today. “I don’t think it’s ever happened before around here. It’s a real tragedy.” Also read: An average cow produces 10.8 tonnes of milk a year. Now, comes China’s cloned super cows which can give 18 tonnes The Texas cattle explosion About 70 miles southwest of Amarillo, in Castro County, the fire’s location, is a vast grassland country dotted with dairy farms and cattle ranches. According to local news outlet KFDA, Sheriff Sal Rivera said before being milked, the majority of the dead cows — a mix of Holstein and Jersey cows — were kept in a sizable holding area. A little more than 90 per cent of the farm’s overall herd was 18,000 cows.

Bystander photos shared on social media showed the burnt cows that were rescued from the structure as well as the massive plume of black smoke rising from the farm fire. The Texas blaze “is the deadliest fire involving cattle we know of,” County Judge Mandy Gfeller, the county’s top executive claimed, according to USA Today. In the past, there have been fires that killed hundreds of cows at once, but nothing compared to this. Given that a cow is generally worth around $2,000 (~Rs 1.63 lakh), the company’s livestock losses could total in the tens of millions of dollars, according to Gfeller. Losses to structures and equipment are not included in that. Also read: ‘Go back to India; What’s with worshipping cows? They have rat temple’: Seedy racist Ann Coulter taunts Nikki Haley The cause of the explosion  The cause of the fire was under investigation and it was not immediately possible to contact members of the family who own the farm in one of Texas’ biggest milk production counties, as per Reuters. According to BBC, machinery in the facility may have ignited methane gas and the subsequent explosion.

KFDA quoted Rivera as saying that the fire might have started with a machine called a “honey badger,” which he described as “vacuum that sucks the manure and water out.”

“Possibly (it) got overheated and probably the methane and things like that ignited and spread out and exploded,” he added.

The complex has no further reported fires, USA Today quoted Mayor Malone, as saying. He added that the dairy had been operating in the area for just over three years and had between 50 and 60 employees.

The blaze prompted calls from the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), among the oldest US animal protection groups, for federal laws to prevent barn fires which kill hundreds of thousands of farm animals each year. As per an AWI statement, there are no federal regulations protecting animals from fires and only a few states, Texas not among them, have adopted fire protection codes for such buildings. Since tracking barn and farm fires began in 2013 by the Washington-based organisation, it was the largest single-incident death of cattle in the nation. Around 6.5 million farm animals have died in such fires in the last decade, most of them poultry. According to Allie Granger, a policy associate at the organisation, that easily beat the previous high, a 2020 fire at an upstate New York dairy farm that killed roughly 400 cows. Also read: Explained: Is it safe to consume milk from cattle infected by lumpy skin disease? Cleaning up carcasses Officials from the state and the dairy industry are beginning the enormous cleaning up of the 18,000 burned carcasses. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality provided several requirements for the onsite burial of carcasses on its website, including burying the animal at least 50 feet away from the closest well and noting the GPS coordinates of the location. However, mass burials are not mentioned anywhere, as per USA Today. According to officials, the environmental quality commission and the AgriLife Extension Service are working together to help with the cleanup. Mayor Malone claimed to have completed emergency management classes where he learned how to properly dispose of animal carcasses during a crisis, however, nothing compared to the recent tragedy. The report quoted him as saying, “How do you dispose of 18,000 carcasses? That’s something you just don’t run into very much.” Also read: Moo Menace: Why Bill Gates is investing in Australian startup targeting cow burps Texas ranks fourth in milk production According to a trade organisation called the Texas Association of Dairymen, the state is home to 319 Grade A dairies with an estimated 625,000 cows that produce close to 16.5 billion pounds of milk annually, placing the state fourth in the nation for milk production. As per the US Department of Agriculture, Castro County produces 148 million pounds of milk per month from 15 dairies, ranking it as the second-highest producing county in Texas. South Fork Dairy was enormous even by Texas standards. It is 18,000 cattle making it almost ten times bigger than the typical Texas dairy herd. It’s not the first time Texas cattle have lost a lot of lives before, but rarely do so many perish in a single fire. According to the Texas Association of Dairymen, a blizzard in December 2015 killed off around 20,000 cattle throughout the Texas Panhandle. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service reported Hurricane Harvey in 2017 had caused $93 million (~Rs 759 crore) in livestock losses around the state and resulted in the drowning of thousands of people in Southeast Texas. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .