OSU Extension Advises Producers to Watch Livestock After Tornadoes

By Anna Pope

As people pick up the devastating damage from recent tornadoes, Oklahoma State University Extension Service experts are urging rural residents to keep an eye on their livestock and water.

Livestock can unknowingly eat leftover debris from tornadoes like small pieces of metal while grazing in fields and pens. David Lalman, an OSU beef cattle extension specialist, said when this happens, it can lead to hardware disease.

He said once cattle eat objects like screws and wire, or even wood splinters and plastic bags, they will work their way to a section of their ruminant stomach and make a puncture wound or prevent digestion. This can also cause infection.

Lalman said producers should monitor their animals for signs of pain, discomfort, weight loss and low appetite, and to call a veterinarian if symptoms are present. But there are ways to help prevent animals from eating foreign objects.

“Removing as much of that material from the pasture or field as possible is the most practical thing, if possible,” Lalman said. “And the other thing is to make sure the animals have adequate nutritional, supply or forage available.”

Although walking a pasture collecting debris can be overwhelming, he said providing animals abundant food is key because the hungrier they are, the more tempted they will be to chew foreign objects.

The extension is also advising rural residents to pay attention to their water. Christi Evans, a food safety extension specialist, said floods can also contaminate water supplies for people impacted by storms.

She said if people are under a boil advisory, they should follow it.

And if people depend on private wells for water and their homes were affected by a tornado, they should have the well tested.

Officialsare assessing the damage from recent severe weather, and rural areas and communities were hit hard.