Natural disasters are seen every year, including the devastating Helene and Milton hurricanes. For Texas and North Dakota, the issue was wildfires. Nearly 140,000 acres were impacted by the wildfires in North Dakota. The image of the scorched earth and the property and livestock losses were significant. The North Dakota wildfires are ranked #8 in RRFN’s top stories of the year. The fires were contained by late October, but there is a lingering impact. “Some of the livestock buyers have said they don’t really want to buy cattle out of those areas simply because they’re afraid of pneumonia setting in at a later date or feed efficiency issues, you just don’t have cattle at peak performance when they’re struggling healthwise.” Reported Ag Commissioner Doug Goehring. Thousands of dollars have been raised to help affected ranchers. Resources remain available online.
