Ranchers, pilots and snowmobilers are racing to provide hay and drinking water to thousands of cattle left stranded by blizzards in the southeastern Plains, REPORTED AP. The Colorado National Guard was set to resume dropping hay bales from the air Thursday and trucking in hay to cattle along county roads that have been cleared of snow. A snowstorm left drifts as high as 10 feet (3 meters) last week, stranding livestock herds that are crucial to the region's economy. Cattle were already spread thinly across the region before the storm hit because a prolonged drought had left little grass for them to eat. Crews dropping hay from military helicopters and a C-130 cargo plane are mostly seeing groups of 10 or 20, rather than 100 or more, said Dan Hatlestad, spokesman for the Southeast Area Operations Command. On Wednesday, helicopters and a C-130 cargo plane dropped more than 900 bales of hay. An unknown number of bales were also brought in by the ground. Ranchers rode with pilots to spot cattle and creeks for water. Crews in smaller helicopters landed near frozen streams and used sledgehammers to chop ice from the water. Many of the cattle have gone nearly a week without being fed and cows can usually only survive five to 10 days without food or water in good conditions, Colorado state veterinarian John Maulsby said. There is no estimate yet on how many cows have died in Colorado. «We think there are probably 30,000 head out there that are at risk that we're having to make sure we feed,» said Maj. Gen. Mason Whitney of the Colorado Guard. The Colorado Cattlemen's Association estimated there were 100,000 to 200,000 cattle in the region's open range. Don Ament, the Colorado agriculture commissioner, said farmers and ranchers have told him the storm was worse than a 1997 blizzard that killed 30,000 cattle and cost $28 million in agriculture losses. The 20,000 bison on ranches in southeastern Colorado, western Kansas and Oklahoma were unaffected by the storm, partly because bison use their head and hump «like a big snowplow to get down to where the forage is,» said Dave Carter, executive director of the National Bison Association. Last week's storm was also blamed for the deaths of at least 13 people and widespread power outages. Officials said it could be weeks before power is restored to some of the most isolated, rural customers.
