Rancher describes heartbreak after wildfire burns hundreds of thousands of acres in Nebraska – Brownfield Ag News

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Rancher describes heartbreak after wildfire burns hundreds of thousands of acres in Nebraska

A rancher in western Nebraska says she’s still processing the destruction of a large wildfire that raced across the area recently.

“Just a lot of heartbreak and a lot of chaos.  It’s been pretty hard.”

Glenna Sherfey and her husband help manage a ranch near the village of Lisco. She says the fire ignited Thursday night and burned 900 acres of pasture. “Just looking across those hills, it just looks like a desert. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

She says the blaze was controlled in the first 24 hours before the winds shifted and reignited portions of it Friday night. Sherfrey says her home and outbuildings were not damaged.  

And, she says, the 800-head cow herd is safe. “Driving up through the hills where you can see a football field size of grass, and it’s just black around it. There will be cattle standing there. They’re just fine.”

Sherfey tells Brownfield, “Our foreman had gone across the road yesterday morning to check things and he said the cattle are content. They’re laying around and chewing their cud. They’re not really wanting to move around.”

She says the next steps include assessing fencing losses, moving parts of the herd to different ranches and selling off animals due to loss of feed.

State fire officials estimate that more than 800,000 acres have been lost from four wildfires that started late last week.

• The Morrill County fire near Lake McConaughy has consumed more than 600,000 acres with about 10 percent contained.






• The Cottonwood Fire near Gothenburg has charred more than 100,000 acres.






• The Road 203 Fire near Halsey has burned more than 50,000 acres.

Following an aerial tour on Saturday, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen told reporters the damage was better than anticipated. “There were a number of ranch homes and corrals that were spared. Cattle were there. We saw lots of momma cows that were walking across burnt ground and going to water tanks. I’m not saying there’s no loss of livestock, but things were way better from that perspective than what I thought.”

Ag Director Sherry Vinton said if producers have immediate needs, they need to contact their local emergency management. “For recovery after the disaster, at that point in time, make sure your losses are documented and then FSA will have announcements forthcoming.”

Executive Vice President Laura Field with the Nebraska Cattlemen says their relief fund will accept donations starting Monday. “We’re going to try and coordinate hay needs, fence needs and livestock needs. I think it’s going to be pretty tough news coming out of these areas. We’ve heard from some people that the fires missed them. That’s good, but we know that there were evacuations in some pretty big agricultural areas.”

Visit https://www.nebraskacattlemen.org/ for more information.

Glenna Sherfey:

Audio credit of the Governor’s press conference to Brownfield affiliate KSID.