I feel sorry for that poor cow. Leaned on a pole and froze to death, I guess. Wish I knew more about ranching; I would deduce there was no shelter arrangement for the animals where they were. In the older days cowboys would literally walk herds of cattle over long distances and dangers like this were inherent, but I’d have thought in modern times with motor transportation the beef would be kept from freezing till it had been to the slaughter house? Anyhow I “wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.” Surprised PETA isn’t screaming.
That cow/steer is probably still alive, it is standing up. And the cattle in this case were still probably in summer pasture. Cattle hadn’t been sent to market yet or moved to winter pasture. Even in that case, there aren’t barns big enough for many of these operations. We didn’t keep cattle in barns except cows we knew were going to calve or calves. The rest of them were on open range, ranches bigger than cities as I explained the other night.
Cattle will drift before a storm. I’ve seen lots of them facing south against a fence in the Oklahoma panhandle when storms came through from the north.
This was an early storm. Most cattle would still be on pasture for a few more weeks before being moved to a sheltered area.