Latest / CattleUSA Daily / 270: The Ranger Road Fire and Its Impact on Cattle Country with Emma Coffman

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270: The Ranger Road Fire and Its Impact on Cattle Country with Emma Coffman · CattleUSA Daily

0:01
Today, Emma Kaufman and I come on to the podcast to talk about
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the wildfires that are currently impacting Oklahoma and Kansas.
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This is a very sorrowful topic and I do want to put a content
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warning out there for everyone that if this topic going into
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the details of a wildfire and the realities of a wildfire for
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production agriculture and specifically in the beef
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industry is something that you are uncomfortable with.
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I am putting that content warning out there right now
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because Emma and I talk about the realities of it and what it
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truly is like, what the impacts have looked like, what our
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current numbers are, and everything that goes along with
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that. The date of this recording is
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February 20th, Friday and the afternoon, so this episode is
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going to be going out on Monday. So if there has been any updates
0:52
from the time of recording, please take those into
0:55
consideration as we go into this episode.
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Before we hop in, if you are watching on YouTube, make sure
1:01
that you're subscribed and you like this episode.
1:02
And if you're on any of our other podcast platforms, make
1:05
sure you take a second to follow the show and go rate and review
1:07
as well. Without further ado, let's go
1:09
ahead and hear from Emma. Welcome to the Cattle USA Daily
1:16
podcast, your go to source for the latest livestock markets,
1:20
industry insights and the updates shaping agriculture
1:23
today. I'm your host, Lauren Moylan, a
1:25
passionate advocate for agriculture, here to keep you
1:28
informed and connected. Now let's dive into today's
1:31
episode. Emma, welcome back to the
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podcast once again. I am super excited to get on and
1:43
chat with you about our topics that we're going to be breaking
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down today. We've got a lot of things that
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have been happening in agriculture over the past week,
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but today we are here to talk about something that is a little
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bit more sorrowful and just really not super fun to talk
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about. But I know our producer
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population across the nation needs to know about what's going
2:04
on in Oklahoma and Kansas right now and needs to understand the
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realities of it. I've lived through a fire myself
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on a ranching operation and it's never a fun or easy experience
2:14
to go through. I know that you have helped with
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recovery before on an operation as well.
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So you have a lot of experience in that area.
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So we're here to just talk about everything that's going on, what
2:25
we know and how we're going to continue to move forward.
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So Emma, if you want to go ahead and just take get away with your
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thoughts and we'll go from there.
2:33
Yeah, Lauren, it's never anything that we want to happen.
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Unfortunately, this is something that happens.
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Mother Nature has her own course.
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There's a lot of things we can do to help prevent mass damages,
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but at the same time, there's also a lot of things that we
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can't do to stop it. So with the recent wildfire that
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most people I'm sure on the Internet have heard about, and
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if you haven't, exactly what happened is, is exactly what it
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sounds like. There are that a wildfire that
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started in Beaver County, Oklahoma.
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If you don't know where Beaver County is, it's in the Panhandle
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of Oklahoma. And so it actually the Beaver
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County stockyard, you know, we the ranch I was with there for a
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while, we used to haul into that place.
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So a lot of the people that are being affected are people that
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we know, unfortunately. And so the day that that fire
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happened was also when we had 6 to 70 mile per hour winds.
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And when we are this dry and this hot and with that amount of
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wind, there's not a whole lot you can do.
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I mean, you can put in fire breaks if you know about it and
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what direction that wind's going to be heading.
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But there's sometimes you just can't get to your place in time,
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especially when wind shift direction changes.
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You know that it happens in a split second.
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You think it's 20 miles off in the distance.
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The next thing you know, 5 minutes pass and it is right
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there on your doorstep. So it happens quickly, it
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happens fast. As of right now, now, so the
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date that this is being filmed is February 20th.
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As of right now, we're still being the report is still
3:58
283,000 acres and some change. The fire happened on Tuesday, So
4:05
what that's the 17th and we are now at 20% contained as of
4:09
February 19th. That was our last night, late
4:12
last night, that was our most recent update is that we are at
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20% contained right now. It is the largest wildfire that
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of the season so far and now granted, we're only in February,
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so hopefully no one tries to win that title because it's it is
4:26
really devastating. Yeah, it absolutely is.
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And I think it's one of those situations that nothing can ever
4:33
prepare you properly for a wildfire or what it takes to
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really go through it, the recovery efforts, everything
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like that. And Emma, this episode is going
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to go out on Monday morning. But as we're speaking right now,
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people are still down there trying to contain this, trying
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to fight this and trying to get it under control.
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But it's one of those situations that we have winds right now in
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the Midwest. And there's only so much you can
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do with the unseasonably dry weather that we've had this
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winter and the fact that it took one spark and a little bit of
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wind. And this is the devastation that
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we have seen over the past week. And it's it is.
5:13
There's no other words to say other than it is devastating.
5:17
Yeah. And to your point, the fire,
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like I said, started in Oklahoma just outside a little bit east
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of Beaver in Beaver County, and it is now spread into southern
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parts of Kansas. I forgot the total county count
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at this point. But yeah, it's it's a lot of
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land. Now this is not to be confused
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with Stevens Fire and also Lavender also it happened.
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So there's Lavender, 8 Wall and Stevens that all happened at the
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same time, around the same time as Ranger Rd.
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Fire is the 283 + 1000 acre on the we're referring to today.
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And so that is different than I had someone online get a little
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confused on that. So I do want to say that those
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were separate fires or originating in separate
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locations. I'm not quite 100% sure if it
6:02
did end up blending together, but it is definitely a
6:05
possibility. But we haven't seen this kind of
6:08
magnitude of fire since 2024 and that is a big concern.
6:12
For those who don't remember of what happened in 2024 is a
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Smokehouse Creek fire burned over 1,000,000 acres, which is a
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record set. Again, I don't want to see this
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record being broken anytime soon, but it burned over
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1,000,000 acres and the total economic damages that was valued
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at the time of 2024, it was over a billion dollars.
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And we have to remind ourselves that the price of cattle has
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gone up since 2024, especially during this time of year.
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A lot of calving is going on and that's you can't move cattle
6:48
quickly, especially when they got calves on their side.
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It's hard enough to move cattle in a time crunch, as everybody
6:54
knows when you need to move or do something quickly, it never
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happens quickly. I was actually talking to some
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of our guys that were up there fighting the fire and they said,
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you know, there's not a lot you can do, Cut a fence down, open
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up gates and just hope that the fire flushes them out and that
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they run and they can outpace. But again, when you're when
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you're fighting fire that is spreading as fast as it is with
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70 mile per hour wind, there's very, very little, really little
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anything you can do and much less the cattle can do for
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themselves. It's really heartbreaking.
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It's really sad. There's only so much, you know,
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so many people, so many volunteer firefighters, so many
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water trucks, so many planes that can go on at the same time
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to combat this. We have lost homes, we've lost
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vehicles, tractors, equipment, barns and obviously cattle and
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then right, just like basic infrastructure, like fence
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lines. So, so it's, it's really
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devastating, especially going into the summer months.
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You know, some of those areas that we had stockpiled and we
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were getting ready to turn out cattle on different grazing
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grounds. As we get into the springtime
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now, it's hitting at a really, you know, kind of unfortunate
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time. We don't really have a whole lot
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of rain forecasted in the near future.
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And in all honesty, it's, it's heartbreaking.
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It's I've got almost like an empathetic level of sorrow that
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I have for people in this position because I see so many
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operations. And you got to think about
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these, some of these people just rebuilt their herds from 2024,
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like just rebuilt their herds. First Calving said that they
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actually are getting to keep and now they're getting hit again.
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There's no words that can articulate the frustration, the
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sorrow, the pain. You know, cattle producers are
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just some of the most caring people on this planet, despite
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what some, you know, anti, you know, animal rights
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organizations try to say I've seen men lose their, I mean,
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like some of them commit suit just because of how drastic and
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how much pain that they feel for losing animals, animals that
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suffer. I've seen people that take care
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of their cattle more better than are better than most people take
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care of their own dogs and cats. And I'll die on that hill.
9:13
So it's really, really hard. Some of the footage that I've
9:15
received of these animals that have burned alive and as you
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know, like when an animal, especially a beef animal is
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turned to a certain degree that there is no quality of life left
9:25
for that animal. The most humane thing is to put
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it down. That's hard.
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That's hard. Putting down your own cattle is
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one of the worst things ever. Even though, you know, it's in
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the deep pit of your heart that this is the right thing to do,
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it still doesn't take away the just the gut wrenching act of,
9:41
you know, pointing that firearm and pulling the trigger like
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it's it's very difficult and it's not a conversation we like
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to have. But you know, we're also looking
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at low inventory numbers on top of all this where they're
9:53
nowhere close in the screw worm situation of getting a facility
9:57
put. We have a distribution facility
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that's not the same thing as a production facility.
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We need to remember that distribution is different than
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an actual production of sterile flies.
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So we're nowhere close on being able to tackle this certain
10:09
situation. In fact, a feed yard down the
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road from me announced that they're closing today because
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they can't get cattle in. And now the local regional
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cattle that could potentially go into those markets are now non
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existent. And these gosh, these people
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have to rebuild. And it like what do you say?
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What do you say to somebody who's lost literally everything?
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Hopefully not their families or anything else like that.
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I don't think we have any reported death losses, but just
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what if you were the one that lost your home, your barn, and
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now that your entire source of income well over $1,000,000.
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If you're just say you just have 163 pairs, you know that's well
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over $1,000,000 in this current market.
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What do you say? Yeah, you, there's, there's
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nothing that you can say other than I think you said it
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perfectly, having that empathetic sorrow that there is
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no, there are no words to describe the site.
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The like every emotion or sense walking into one of those
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situations less than 24 hours after a wildfire has come
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through a cattle operation. There is there's nothing that
11:18
you can do to have that leave your mind.
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And it's, it's a visceral reaction sitting here and having
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experienced it, knowing what everyone is going through in
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this moment. There are no words other than
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the fact that we as a cattle industry and we as producers
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need to not shy away from this, need to not shy away from these
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conversations and talking very frankly about it.
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That's why you and I, Emma, are here, not afraid to say like
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this is the reality of it like this.
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And it sucks and it's not fun. Like there are going to be
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hundreds of thousands of cattle that are lost in this and
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whether they were lost immediately or whether they're
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lost right after or you also have to think about smoke
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inhalation and the fact that we might have cattle that get
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shipped out to Texas or a different part of Oklahoma or
12:14
Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, somewhere else.
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Like these cattle get put on trucks and they're going to go
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to grass somewhere and they might, they still might not make
12:21
it because of smoke inhalation or every other potential side
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effect that is going to come along with the long term effects
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that a fire has on a ranching operation, on a beef animal, on
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a family, on a community, on an economic impact of that region.
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There's There's no words that can describe the devastation
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that a wildfire has on a ranching community.
12:51
Yeah. And to your point, if I remember
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correctly, we were over 15,000 head.
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I think it was like the reported number for the Smokehouse Creek
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fire. I don't know where we're at with
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the Ranger Rd. fire and I don't think we're going to know that
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for probably a while. I just, you know, if you're on a
13:13
Volunteer Fire Department, I want to say thank you for
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showing up for your neighbors, for those who dropped everything
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and went up there to try to help as much as you can, even if it
13:22
is putting down your friend's cattle.
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I mean, just alleviating that one step and not having to be
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the one to actually have to do that to your own ownership of of
13:34
bovine it it's it's gut wrenching.
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But I want to say thank you for those who are putting in a lot
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of time and energy and effort into trying to fix this.
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But there are a lot of resources.
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I will be, I will say be very, very careful.
13:47
Unfortunately, when we experience disaster and
13:50
devastation, there are I'm going to say it's scum of the earth
13:54
people that come out of the woodworks and will try to
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monetize and use the situation for their own gain.
13:59
So when you are looking at resources on how to either give,
14:04
donate, hey, maybe monetary wise donate, maybe it's fence post,
14:09
whatever it is that you feel that you want or how you want to
14:13
help contribute, please be very careful.
14:15
The best thing you can do is call the accounting extension
14:17
office and talk to them. Do not just go and start dumping
14:23
money into any random Venmo or PayPal account that gets posted
14:26
on Facebook and it might get a few RE shares.
14:29
Please be very very careful. Do not just drop off.
14:32
Hey unless you personally know that person or the county
14:37
extension office. If they tell you it is a
14:40
designated drop off zone, there's a reason for that.
14:43
There's a couple of truckloads of hay that got stolen from the
14:46
Smokehouse Creek fire. A lot of resources and money got
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stolen and I think that's disgusting.
14:51
And if that was, if there's a person listening that did that,
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shame on you. There's a special place in hell
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for you, in my personal opinion, because these people are quite,
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this is their livelihood, this is their family, this is their,
15:02
theirs is our life. So if I'd love that people want
15:06
to rally around each other and support people that are in the
15:10
industry, absolutely please, if you can support, absolutely.
15:13
But just be very, very careful and cognizant that there are
15:16
some snakes in the grass. So that's one thing I will throw
15:19
out there. It's just you see a lot of stuff
15:22
on the Internet and I see a lot of comments like how can I help?
15:25
How can I help? And I just just be very, very
15:27
careful when you when you are kind of venturing into that
15:30
area. But I know they can definitely
15:32
need help. I think the biggest thing to
15:34
remember is this is more of an agricultural related economic
15:39
loss right now. There's a few homes that have
15:41
been burned but we're still not sure on how many.
15:44
This is not like Smoke Creek, Smokehouse Creek that like took
15:47
out communities. Talk to extension agents, see
15:50
what they need. Sometimes donating physical
15:54
items is a lot easier for them to handle than just money
15:58
because then when you give them money, they don't know there's a
16:02
lot of legalities that go behind what they can and cannot buy and
16:05
then how much and then who gets what.
16:06
So if you, if you have fence posts, you know, that's probably
16:10
one of the number one things they're going to need.
16:13
But I would just contact the county extension agents, talk to
16:16
them in whatever nearest county that's near you, but as if it is
16:21
with the in there. If they're, if they're
16:24
registered with, with either Agrilife or the county offices
16:28
with each state, Oklahoma and Kansas, that is your safest bet.
16:32
And if they don't know, they'll at least be able to point you in
16:35
a direction that is safe and it is legitimate.
16:38
Yeah, absolutely. I will have all of those links
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down below for you guys. KLA.
16:42
So the Kansas Livestock Association and also the
16:45
Oklahoma Cattlemen's Foundation have done a lot of work on
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putting out resources for where people can donate, how they can
16:52
donate, what they need, what they don't on all of those
16:56
things. Because there is the opportunity
16:58
for monetary donations, which I know are always appreciated.
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And both of those places are 5 O 1C sixes and so you get a
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charitable registration receipt for that as well.
17:09
So I know that that is a really big help, a lot of operations
17:13
and when they're giving. But like Emma said, there's also
17:16
needs for hay, there's needs for different like fencing supplies,
17:20
but there's also needs for people willing to haul.
17:23
I think that's the biggest issue that we're seeing right now is
17:26
everyone's willing to donate items, but we don't have enough
17:28
people willing to haul hay. And so if you are willing and
17:32
able to hop in a vehicle and drive down to these areas or up
17:37
to these areas depending on where you're located, I know
17:40
that that is a really big need. And so definitely, we reach out,
17:43
get a hold of the people down in our show notes, and they will be
17:46
able to point you in the right direction.
17:47
Because I think that this is a time where the agricultural
17:49
community can really show up for one another.
17:52
And it is absolutely devastating.
17:54
But we can be the light in the darkness of this situation, in
17:57
this scenario. And it truly does not have to be
18:00
the end for a lot of these operations that have been
18:03
affected. And I think that that starts
18:05
with us showing up for one another and showing truly what
18:08
this community can do and how we can continue to support one
18:13
another through this really trialing time.
18:15
Because like you said, Emma, it's unfortunate, but we see
18:18
wildfires almost every single year.
18:22
Not to this devastation, not to this mass size, but they affect
18:27
people every single year. And so it's really important
18:31
that we just take the time to show up.
18:35
And whatever way that is, whether that is getting on
18:38
Facebook and re sharing a post to your audience or whether that
18:42
is contacting KLA or an Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association or
18:47
something like that and getting a hold of people.
18:49
They're giving monetarily, giving with your time, giving
18:52
with your resources, whatever that looks like.
18:54
I know that there is a lot of opportunity out there for us to
18:57
continue to show up for one another.
19:00
Yeah, absolutely I can. Then I said it better myself.
19:03
But yeah, and I will say that there's going into the
19:05
summertime, there's a lot of grazing techniques that you can
19:08
implement to help mitigate some extra brush or basically, you
19:12
know, matches being ready to light, you know, there.
19:17
And I have no way trying to say that that is the reason for this
19:21
particular fire. I don't think you can do
19:23
anything when it's dry. It's dry and it's just, you
19:26
know, tensile waiting to burn. Kindling, that's the word I was
19:29
looking for, kindling. Kindling is just waiting to
19:31
waiting to be lit. So but I will say that when
19:34
we're going into the next growing season and the next
19:37
grazing season, maybe look at some different options to go
19:40
ahead and maybe implement as more strategic grazing plan.
19:45
Maybe it's multi species, you start getting some, maybe get
19:47
some goats or let your neighbor come out and graze their goats
19:50
out and get some of that. Just brush that your cattle
19:53
aren't going to eat on that are just kind of like dead and just
19:55
sitting there. So I will say that while there's
19:58
a silver lining to every, you know, Gray cloud and so this is
20:02
a really good option or a really good time to maybe see some, I
20:07
can get some educational resources under your belt.
20:09
There's a lot online life has a lot of resources.
20:12
The Center for Grazing Lands and Ranch Management has fantastic
20:15
resources. Each state has a lot of
20:18
resources no matter where you're listening from or where you
20:20
live. But you know, we're going to go
20:22
in, this is not going to be the first fire that we've seen.
20:24
It's not going to be the last fire that we've seen.
20:26
So. There's a lot of options and
20:28
opportunities for us to increase our program to hopefully
20:32
mitigate, you know, damages to your own property down the road.
20:36
But our at least for, you know, I think I speak for Lauren and I
20:39
both our hearts go out to anyone who has been affected and is
20:43
being affected by these fires. Prayers.
20:45
Absolutely. And just like I said, like what
20:48
can you say? Just know that where our hearts
20:51
are going out to you because it's it's devastating to watch
20:54
and I can't imagine the devastation that you must be
20:57
feeling. Absolutely.
20:59
I kind of think of a better way to wrap this up and some
21:02
encouragement to everyone listening that there is
21:05
something that you can do whether you want to help now or
21:08
whether you want to look at your operation and see how, like you
21:12
said, Emma, there's really once a spark is lit, there's no way
21:15
of stopping it in this situation and scenario.
21:18
But there is some techniques that we can put in as ranchers,
21:20
as stewards of the land to continue to try and mitigate the
21:25
risk as much as humanly possible.
21:27
Because the reality of mitigating risk is the risk is
21:30
always there and it's bound to happen at times, but doing what
21:34
we possibly can while we can to prevent it in any way possible.
21:39
So Emma, thank you for your time today To all of our listeners,
21:41
make sure you check out the show notes down below and really look
21:44
into all of the options that I have listed.
21:47
I have both Oklahoma options and Kansas options depending on
21:51
where you're located. Get a hold of those different
21:53
links down below. Pick up the phone and ask where
21:56
your local drop off location is going to be.
21:58
There are drop off locations for supplies in every single region
22:02
of both Oklahoma and Kansas of how you can help.
22:06
So make sure you check out those down below.
22:07
Emma, thank you for your time and all of your listeners.
22:09
We will see you all next time on another episode of the Cattle
22:12
USA Daily Podcast. Have a good one y'all.