The Nebraska Brand Committee says recent wildfires and changes in grazing management could be causing an increase in reports of missing cattle.
John Widdowson is the committee’s executive director. “We are seeing basically normal activity in these potential missing cattle. I can’t answer if they’re stolen or lost.”
He tells Brownfield it’s likely some ranchers might have lost cattle when rotating pastures this summer or if wildfires damaged fences. “Some of the missing cattle reports that we’ve gotten are probably effects of some of those fires where fences have been burned or through the process of fighting fires.
