Polls for producers: how real farms handle losses

Why we ask

Why we ask producers these questions

Official surveys tell us how many cattle, sheep and hogs die each year. They say much less about what happens next on an ordinary farm: whether the renderer still comes, whether people trust composting a big cow, or what a family does when their kid's show steer dies at home. Our polls try to fill that gap, one honest answer at a time.

Pick any poll below, vote, and you'll see the live tally straight away. Each takes a few seconds. There's no sign-up and we don't record who voted for what.

Question highlight

The renderer question: why access varies so much

We ask whether a renderer still picks up at your farm because the answer shapes everything else. Where one does, most routine losses are a phone call. Where one doesn't, you're into composting, burial or hauling, each with its own work and rules. The number of plants willing to take whole carcasses has shrunk over the years as regulations tightened. Our locations pages explain how rendering coverage and disposal rules differ by state.

Dead-stock handling isn't only about disposal, either. USDA's 2015 cattle death-loss study found 19.0%^[2] of cattle operations used nonlethal predator control in 2015, and carcass removal is one of those methods: a dead calf left in the pasture teaches coyotes where dinner is. Our services page covers what to do when no truck comes.

Question highlight

The outbreak question: what keeps producers up at night

Our poll on mass mortality asks what would worry you most: space, disease spread, water, money or the toll on family and crew. There's no right answer, but the question itself is a good prompt for a planning conversation. It's also where official findings are sobering.

If you keep poultry, the USDA avian influenza epidemiology report is worth a skim. By our estimate, infected premises in the outbreak since 2022 have averaged about 102,814 birds per premises^[5], which shows how fast a single positive test can outgrow a farm's own compost space.

If a written plan is on your to-do list, start with our barn and feedlot pre-planning guide and share the staff briefing guide with whoever would be doing the work.

The full set

The eight questions we ask, and why each one is there

• What usually happens to an adult animal that dies? The baseline: rendering, compost, burial, landfill, lab or cremation.
• What would you want for a show animal? Because a 4-H steer often isn't handled like the rest of the herd.
• Can you still get a renderer? Access is shrinking, and it decides most other choices.
• Do you have a written plan for a big loss? The gap between having a plan and having it on paper.
• What's a fair price for one dead cow? Expectations against published costs.
• What kind of operation do you run? So you can see who's answering the rest.
• What worries you most about a mass loss? Where planning effort should go first.
• Have you composted a mature animal? Experience versus the extension-office recommendation.

We wrote each option the way a producer would say it, and we don't pre-fill any tally. If you want the figures that sit behind these questions, like how many cattle die each year or what composting costs per pound, the tools page and our services page cite them directly.

Poll questions are also a quiet way to start a hard talk at home. Asking a teenager which answer they'd pick for their show heifer is gentler than asking what they want done if she dies. If that conversation is coming, our guide to pre-planning livestock aftercare may help.