The storm dubbed Goliath hit the region on Dec. 26 with winds ranging from 50 to 85 mph and snow anywhere between 10 to 22 inches deep. These conditions created massive snowdrifts that buried and shorted out fences, allowing some animals to travel far beyond the pasture limits.
One Texas producer, Blake Birdwell, said he has found his cattle anywhere from 5 to 60 miles from the ranch. At the time of the storm, he had 13,000 yearlings turned out on wheat pasture, and of those, 10,000 are either missing or dead.
“I’ve never seen anything like it in my lifetime,” Birdwell said. “I knew what was going to happen the minute the storm hit. We did everything we could to prepare for it, but it was just so bad that there was nothing we could really do.”
Since the storm, Birdwell has spent his time sorting through pastures, looking for any sign of his remaining cattle. He said it has been difficult to get portable pens or semis into most of those areas, and so a lot of the sorting is done horseback with the help of his neighbors.
Despite the mess of cattle in people’s yards, walking on highways, cattle commingling with other herds and the number that have died, Birdwell pointed out that there has been some good that has emerged from the storm.
“You see the best and the worst come out of people in these situations,” Birdwell said. “Fortunately for me, I have seen the best come out of landowners, neighbors and ranchers, as we have all realized that we’re in this shipwreck together. I think there is a sense of a western code that a lot of us still ride by, and we’re really seeing that coming out now, and it’s a neat thing to see.”
In terms of cattle numbers, however, Laramie Adams, the director of public affairs for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA), said they probably won’t be able to get an exact number on the amount of dead cattle until the snow melts.
“A lot of efforts are still progressing,” Adams explained. “As we continue to move forward, we are finding that the numbers we originally predicted are lower than expected. The TSCRA will continue to work with the local law enforcement office, sheriff’s department and ranchers to get the cattle back to their proper owners.”
As for the cattle market, Derrell Peel, a livestock marketing specialist at Oklahoma State University, predicted that it won’t have too much of an impact. He explained that most of the loss will be felt primarily by the individuals as residual weather effects take their toll on animal productivity.
He said it’s a “big impact on the ones involved, but not a big impact generally in the market place.” 
