Texas wildfire puts spotlight on cattle ranchers and climate extremes: ‘so badly burned they can’t be saved’

Cattle on pastureland that was burned by the Smokehouse Creek fire in Texas, which consumed more than 1m acres. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images

The grim task of assessing the carnage is under way after the largest wildfire in Texas history turned the Panhandle’s picturesque hillsides into a hellscape of ash and ember. The sparsely populated ranges have long been cattle country, and thousands of burnt carcasses were left strewn across the landscape.

Now ranchers are collecting their prized cattle with forklifts and making heartbreaking decisions about which of the injured must be euthanized. Local officials estimate there may be more than 10,000 livestock deaths linked to this disaster. Recovery will take years.