For a seasoned ranching family in Coal Creek, Colo., what began as a routine morning turned into an unimaginable tragedy. On May 8, 15 healthy cattle died suddenly, and weeks later, the Higgs family still has no answers. Photo courtesy Higgs family
Higgs1-RFP-062325
It started with three dead cattle. Within hours, 12 more would follow.
For a seasoned ranching family in Coal Creek, Colo., what began as a routine morning turned into an unimaginable tragedy. On May 8, 15 healthy cattle died suddenly, and weeks later, the Higgs family still has no answers.
“About eight in the morning, my husband found three cattle dead, and contacted the vet immediately and left a message,” Kerri Higgs explained. “We thought maybe they just ate something they shouldn’t have, but it’s usually only one at a time.”
Kerri and her husband Paul moved the remaining heifers to a pasture closer to their home so they could monitor the herd more closely.
But before they could even get all the animals to the new pasture, Kerri’s son noticed from horseback that the heifers were beginning to deteriorate.
“They started to keel over and have seizures,” Kerri said. “Within about 20 minutes of each other, 11 animals passed away.”
By the time the veterinarian arrived at 7 p.m., another cow had died. That cow became the subject of a necropsy.
The pasture where the incident occurred was a new lease for the Higgs family. The cattle had only been on the land for about three weeks.
“There was an old oil well pad that we had set our tank on, and we had received a lot of rain for this area, so it had made a puddle around the oil pad,” Kerri explained. “We thought maybe they got sulfate or something from water on the oil pad.”
WATER TESTING
However, water tests from both the tank and surrounding puddles came back clear.
“Thankfully, because we drink this water too,” Kerri said. “Everything is coming back inconclusive. At first, the vet diagnosed sulfate poisoning but then said no, that’s not what it is. Which is kind of a letdown.”
The next theory was plant poisoning. They had all the hay tested by Colorado State University, which revealed no contaminants.
The Higgs family, familiar with the region’s noxious weeds, reported seeing none on that property or in surrounding pastures. No outside weed inspection has been conducted.
“They fed off of the pasture, so they wanted to do a pasture walk for noxious weeds, but there is no reason for them to do that because there aren’t even noxious weeds out in the beginning of May,” Kerri explained. “I also couldn’t get permission from the landowner anyway.”
Kerri added that it seemed unlikely that an entire herd would ingest the same harmful plant all at once.
“When the first three died in the morning, we thought noxious weeds were a possibility,” Kerri said. “But when the others started dying in the afternoon, we knew there was no way.”
SOIL TESTING
The next step was soil testing. The Energy and Carbon Management Commission recently took soil samples and detected hydrocarbons.
“The smell and color of the soil was also suspicious, so they are sending that off for further testing,” Kerri explained.
Roughly 10 days after moving the heifers to the property, Paul became ill. Looking back, the Higgs family now suspects his illness could be linked to hydrocarbon exposure near the watering tank.
“He was vomiting so we took him into the doctor,” Kerri said. “He had all the same symptoms of hydrocarbons. Every once in a while, you could smell gases by this water tank.”
The family is now waiting on the finalized report from tests on the rumen of one of the deceased cows to determine whether deadly levels of hydrocarbons were present.
“I really don’t know where to go from here,” Kerri explained. “If the rumen comes back negative, there’s nothing else to test for.”
In total, the Higgs family lost 11 first-time heifers that had already calved, two bred Belted Galloway heifers, one yearling cow, and one steer calf. The heifers were bred and raised by the family, and the steer was intended for their own beef.
“It was very devastating the first couple of weeks,” Kerri said.
Animals that survived but showed symptoms included seven yearlings, one bull, and one older cow. The bull became so sick he had to be removed from their breeding program.
Surprisingly, 15 calves showed no symptoms of toxicity. However, the orphaned calves were expensive to feed and difficult to contain, forcing the family to sell them.
“The only thing I can think of is they were feeding off their mother’s milk instead of feed so they didn’t ingest any toxins,” Kerri explained.
The long-term impact on the family is severe. Kerri estimates the losses could cost them a quarter of a million dollars over the next decade.
“We made a little money with the orphaned calf crop, but those were supposed to be our bred heifers next year,” Kerri said. “The steers were going to feed my six children over 18 and their families, as well as our 4-year-old boy at home.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the Higgs family recover financially from the devastating loss.
One of the most confounding aspects of the situation is that the Higgs family has ranched on neighboring land for years without issue. Nearby ranches also reported no signs of toxicity.
“All we know is it was definitely a toxin,” said Kerri. “That’s my best guess, it’s just finding out what and where.”
Kerri urges other ranchers experiencing livestock losses to be persistent and seek multiple opinions.
“I believe we could have saved more of them if the vet could have acted sooner,” Kerri said. Now, the Higgs family continues to wait for test results, for answers and for closure.
For a seasoned ranching family in Coal Creek, Colo., what began as a routine morning turned into an unimaginable tragedy. On May 8, 15 healthy cattle died suddenly, and weeks later, the Higgs family still has no answers. Photo courtesy Higgs familyHiggs1-RFP-062325
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