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By Tom Polansek
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Wildfires raging in the Texas Panhandle have destroyed grain in storage bins and likely killed tens of thousands of livestock, state Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said in an interview on Thursday.
A blaze, dubbed the Smokehouse Creek fire, is the largest in Texas history and burning grazing lands covered with years of grass that are helping to fuel the fire, Miller said.
"It's almost like gasoline when it goes up," he said. "We have now lost over a million acres."
The wildfire, raging northeast of Amarillo since Monday, had blackened 850,000 acres (344,000 hectares) of grasslands and timber as of Wednesday, the Texas A&M Forest Service reported.
The state does not know exactly how many cattle have died, but "the number is going to be very large," Miller said.
"We've lost probably tens of thousands of head of livestock, cattle mainly," he said.
Nationwide, the cattle herd declined to its lowest level in more than seven decades as of Jan. 1, after drought reduced the amount of pastureland available for grazing.
Texas is the nation's biggest cattle producer, and Miller said more than 85% of the state's herd is in the Panhandle. Most are in feedlots and dairies that are unscathed, though, he said.
Losses will be devastating to individual producers but not be large enough to "drastically change the overall production numbers of cattle in the United States," Miller said.
Texas had 12 million cattle at the start of the year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Feed supplies are scarce for surviving cattle because the fire destroyed grazing lands and bins holding crops like wheat and corn, he said.
"It looks like a moonscape up there," Miller said. "There's absolutely zero vegetation. The cattle that do survive, they have absolutely nothing to eat."
The state is collecting donations to help farmers bury dead animals, erect barns and buy new fencing materials, Miller said.
Livestock supply stations have also been set up to collect donations of fencing supplies and hay, said Ben Weinheimer, president of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association.
"Cattle producers are doing everything in their power to protect their livestock while also protecting their families," he said.
(Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
