Pasture lands have been stripped down to a sea of sand after wildfires tore across the U.S. Plains, killing cattle and wiping out their food sources, and threatening a historically small herd already linked to rising beef prices.
The loss of grass in Oklahoma and Kansas has sent ranchers scrambling for donations of hay to feed their herds as some face the prospect of running out of supplies.
Since last week, the biggest wildfire, the Ranger Road Fire, burned an estimated 283,283 acres (114,640 hectares) in northern Oklahoma and southern Kansas, the Oklahoma Department of