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More than two dozen native deer froze to death outside a ranch in San Antonio

It's a reminder that the massive ice storm that hit our state, also touched our wildlife.

SAN ANTONIO — The massive ice storm that hit our state has also affected wildlife along with Farm and Ranching operations. Two dozen native and non-native deer froze to death in the artic storm.

Fortunately, this is hopefully the worst of what our local ranchers had to deal with over the past week. Frozen water troughs had to be broken up because cattle need up to 15 gallons of water to drink each day. 

Cattle also had to be fed and that could have been a bit of a problem if ranchers didn’t have enough hay. Nueces County AG Extension Agent Jason Ott said that overall, cattle and horses are resilient and probably fared well in our area.

"As long as we have good feed and water resources, those animals are going to be able to fend for themselves," Ott said. "A lot of the digestive systems of these animals are geared to where there are essentially affirming a VAT in the gut and that generates a lot of BTUs and forging starts to digest and that really helps to keep these animals to be able to sustain during cold conditions.”

Credit: 3News

While ranchers and their livestock seemed to have weathered the storm well, Ott said fortunately, most of our crop production hasn’t even started. But he did say that some corn had been planted and was sprouting up and may be damaged by the cold weather.

For the latest updates on coronavirus in the Coastal Bend, click here.

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