Kansas ranchers face a long road to recovery after devastating wildfires

After wildfires burned through some of Kansas, its left farmers facing an uphill climb to recovery after seeing their crops get burnt. One farmer lost a third of his herd and almost all of his 800-acre pasture

By

State News

December 23, 2021 - 10:09 AM

Russell County rancher Rich Koester sits on his four-wheeler with his dog, Gibbs. Koester estimates that all of his roughly 800-acre pasture burned in the Four County Fire. Photo by Kansas News Service/David Condos

PARADISE, Kansas — This time of year, rancher Rich Koester is normally busy caring for newborn calves or feeding his herd to get them ready for winter.

Instead, he’s busy burying livestock.

As he walked up to the edge of a freshly dug pit roughly the size of a backyard swimming pool, the charred stubble of prairie grass crunched beneath his feet.

Days after the wildfire that torched his pasture went out, the smell of smoke still hung in the air.

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