01/26/07 Tough winter II

Tough Winter II Yesterday, I told you a little about the winter situation in Colorado and surrounding states. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back with some ramifications of the nasty winter storms. Colorado and Southern Plains states are used to snow storms, but not snow accumulations that persist on hanging around. I talked with Barb Wilkinson with the Colorado Livestock Association and whose family has a cow-calf operation in southern Colorado. Barb says the immediate concern for most cattlemen is finding enough hay and getting it to the cattle. Livestock death losses are always a worry, but it will be quite a while until final estimates will be known. While this is a natural disaster and emergency, FEMA states this is a USDA problem since cattle are involved. Cattlemen and county officials are hoping for some type of assistance to reimburse county budgets for the extra cost of extensive snow removal on county roads leading to cattle pastures. While the National Guard helicopter hay drops have been more than welcome, daily feeding is necessary and feeding with ground equipment is definitely less costly so those roads need to be kept open. Availability of hay is a concern is some areas of these Southern Plains states since many cattle are traditionally wintered on range grasses and hay reserves are not large. One longer term concerns for cattlemen is how many problems cows will have at calving time from the extreme winter conditions they are experiencing now. I think it would be pretty hard to convince many cattlemen in this tough winter that their big problem is global warming. I'm Jeff Keane.