The heat killed so many Kansas cattle in June that the only place to take carcasses was a...

More than 2,000 cattle carcasses were put in landfill piles or pits after dying in the southwest Kansas heat. But that’s not a prohibited or uncommon method of livestock disposal.
HAYS, Kansas — Many of the cattle killed by heat stress last month in southwest Kansas went into a landfill.

But that sudden extreme weather event, coupled with limited disposal options, meant that livestock owners might not have had much of a choice.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment confirmed that 2,773 carcasses needed to be disposed of following the mass deaths in June, based on the assistance requests the state received from feedlots. That represents roughly 0.04% of the state’s inventory of 6.5 million cattle.