HUNGRY STEER accepted a handful of dried weeds.

BALATON — A white-face steer which survived 23 days buried in a snow drift after the Jan. 10-12 blizzard was discovered recently by farmers who were retrieving the carcasses of dead cattle.

The steer was one of 71 cattle which wandered from the Virgil Hagberg farm four miles north of Balaton during the blizzard.

The carcasses of 56 of the lost cattle were recovered from the Sodus Wildlife Management Area in Sodus township.

The surviving steer was found in a three-foot high drift, completely covered by snow except for a small hole, eight inches in diameter, which gave it access to fresh air.

The steer was dug out with the use of a bulldozer and had to be destroyed because of its poor health.

All four legs of the steer were rigid but not frozen. Part of the animal’s hind quarters had started to deteriorate. The animal seemed alert and unimpaired through its head and shoulders.

Hagberg estimated that the steer lost nearly half its weight during the three and a half week ordeal. He said the steer was with a herd which averaged between 750and 800 pounds. He estimated it to weigh about 400 pounds when it was found Monday.

The steer’s only food during its survival ordeal was shoots of weeds and willows sticking through the inside of the drift. When it was uncovered Monday, a farmer gave it a handful of weeds which it ate vigorously.

The steer apparently wandered behind a 10-foot high snow drift during the storm to gain protection from the wind. It appeared that it laid down on nearly bare ground and was covered as the wind enlarged and extended the drift.

The cavity in the snow drift in which the steer lived was expanded to twice the animal’s size as its body heat melted the snow around it.

But there was no space for the steer to move around. It was found lying in the cavity, apparently in the same position it had taken 23 days earlier.

Hagberg said he had walked into the game area several times after the storm but saw no sign of the buried steer. He said he did find two other steers in the slough after the storm and carried hay to them daily until he was able to reach them and haul them to the farm about a week ago.

New Ulm Daily Journal

Feb. 13, 1975