Record heat is cow killer

Dead cows, felled by record high temperatures, can be buried on farms in the San Joaquin Valley under emergency measures ratified Tuesday by supervisors in some California counties.

Counties with emergency declarations include Fresno, Kings, Tulare, Merced and Stanislaus. Others that may follow include Madera, Kern and San Joaquin counties.

Multiple state agencies over the weekend set the stage for taking such unusual measures because the only two rendering plants that serve the region have been overcome by the increased number of animals -- most of them dairy cows -- that have died due to recent high temperatures and humidity.

Normally, state law requires that dead animals be taken to rendering plants for disposal. Under the emergency declarations, other permitted disposal options include taking the animals to a landfill or composting them, a process of natural decomposition in which materials are added to promote decay and reduce odors.

Officials expect the emergency measures will be suspended if animal deaths decline along with temperatures.

Baker Commodities, which operates the Kerman plant -- one of two accepting complete carcasses -- has cut back the number of animals it will pick up, said Dennis Luckey, executive vice president.

"We will only pick up what we can process so that we can avoid having to handle it a second time," Luckey said.

Officials could not be reached at Darling International Inc. near Turlock, the region's other plant.

Under the emergency declaration, Baker has trucked some dead animals to Kettleman Hills and the Chemical Waste Management landfill site there. Luckey declined to quantify the amount of cattle remains that have been processed but said cows appear to be dying at "twice what you would have in a normal July."

Dairy advisers and others said the rate of deaths has increased since last week when temperatures moved into record-breaking territory. No precise numbers are available either from state or county agriculture officials.

But Debora Bacon, University of California dairy adviser for Tulare County, said five of six dairy farmers she talked with Tuesday told her the number of dying dairy cows is "way above average -- about double since last Thursday."

She said some dairy operators in Tulare County, the No. 1 dairy county in the nation, are burying their animals.

In December 2005, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District estimated the number of dairy animals at 2.63 million valleywide. That number is believed to have grown since then.

The emergency animal disposal measures were first developed and approved by the California Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Food and Agriculture in 2004, as a precaution should the state encounter losses from agriterrorism or from diseases such as foot-and-mouth.

Representatives of Food and Ag, Cal-EPA and other agencies took part in a conference call Friday to discuss the options after recent problems that plagued the Kerman plant, including a fire and a mechanical breakdown.

"It's normal to have deaths in cattle," said Gary Kunkel, Tulare County agriculture commissioner, typically between 5 percent and 9 percent of a herd annually. Not all of those deaths are heat-related.

Since Thursday, about 10 Valley dairies have composted their dead animals with the help of Frank Thomas, a composting and manure consultant in Fresno County. Thomas said he offered to help dairy operators at no cost after hearing about the rendering plant emergency.

"In the last few days, some guys have lost up to two cows a day," he said.

Thomas said composting generates heat that kills harmful bacteria and is considered a safe disposal method in other parts of the country.

In Fresno County, some animals were disposed of at the American Avenue Landfill near Kerman but the landfill only has capacity to deal with regular trash, said Marion Miller, resources manager for the county's Department of Public Works.

Dairy operators also need to consider restrictions by the state's Regional Water Quality Control Board, which requires that burial not be close to ground and surface water.

Ground water contamination can be an issue for unlined landfills "with this quantity of animals," said Lanny Cavecilla, a spokesman for the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

Kings County Agriculture Commissioner Tim Niswander said the overflow of dead livestock in his county is being sent to the Kettleman City landfill just west of Interstate 5.

Baker Commodities also operates a facility in Hanford that removes hides from animals taken to its rendering plant in Kerman.

"But the whole thing has just gotten backed up," Niswander said. "And there is no place to put these animals. The heat speeds up the decomposition and things get messy in a short period of time."

The problem is no better in Stanislaus County, where Agricultural Commissioner Dennis Gudgel said carcasses are being sent to an area landfill to alleviate the backup.

"We have one ) facility here, when we used to have two," Gudgel said. "They are just not able to deal with it all."

About the writer:

• Fresno Bee staff writer Robert Rodriguez contributed to this story. Fresno Bee staff writer Dennis Pollock can be reached at dpollock@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6364.