For over two decades, Mike Wintz and his wife, Kayla, have managed their sprawling ranch of nearly 11,000 acres near Bingham, Nebraska. They inherited the cow-calf operations from Kayla’s parents, who were in the business for more than 25 years. Tragically, in less than six hours, almost all their land was engulfed by flames.
This March, large wildfires swept through western and central Nebraska following the state’s second warmest and fourth driest winter on record. The Morrill, Cottonwood, Anderson Bridge, and Road 203 wildfires ignited in a short span of time in these regions. By March 30, the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency reported that wildfires had burned approximately 945,381 acres. In 2026, just a few months into the year, a new record was set for the most acres burned by wildfires in Nebraska, surpassing the previous record from 2012, according to the Nebraska State Climate Office.
In Nebraska, about 92 percent of fire departments are comprised of volunteers, including individuals like rancher Mike Wintz. Mike was nearly four miles from his ranch, deeply involved in battling the Morrill Fire, first reported on March 12. During this, he heard on the radio that the fire was heading toward his home.
“I didn’t leave,” Wintz recounted. “Some of the other crews were heading to the house to try and divert it. I just put my trust in the neighbors and the other firefighters.” Fortunately, they managed to save Wintz’s home, though the danger wasn’t over.
The wildfires struck at a particularly inopportune time for the Wintz family and other ranchers, coinciding with the start of calving season. “It’s the one time you don’t want to move cattle around,” Wintz explained. However, the fires left them no alternative. This stress can affect pregnant cows, and Wintz anticipated losing several calves, having already lost six.
In 2024, cattle and calves were Nebraska’s most valuable commodity, with the state leading the nation in beef and veal exports at $1.66 billion, according to the state Department of Agriculture. Most of Nebraska’s corn, the state’s second most valuable commodity, serves as livestock feed.
Nebraska encompasses about 23 million acres of range and pasture land, with approximately half situated in the Sandhills where the Wintz ranch is located. This area boasts the planet’s most intact temperate grassland, according to Dirac Twidwell, a rangeland and fire ecologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Over the past 150 years, as Nebraska developed its infrastructure and agriculture-driven economy, attitudes toward fire have evolved, Twidwell noted.
Historically, the land has adapted to both wildfires and prescribed burns conducted by Indigenous groups for thousands of years. Fires can enhance biodiversity and control invasive species like cedar trees, which contributed to at least one of the recent fires. While some areas still practice prescribed burns, it is no longer widespread in Nebraska.
In regions like the Sandhills, the absence of regular fire and specific grazing practices have resulted in a more uniform grassland ecosystem, as opposed to the “shifting mosaic” described by Mitchell Stephenson, a rangeland management specialist at the UNL-Extension. This uniformity, combined with warm temperatures, low humidity, and high winds this winter, creates favorable conditions for wildfires.
Dirac Twidwell remarked, “We’re entering a new kind of wildfire era for this generation than what past generations have experienced, and it’s pretty well established on why.”
The day after Wintz’s home was initially saved, shifting winds brought the fire back toward his property. Firefighters and ranchers quickly soaked the buildings with water to prevent any ignitions, sparing the house once more.
The Morrill wildfire, the largest recorded blaze in Nebraska’s history, devastated all of Wintz’s grazing land, around 900 bales of hay, the hair off his bulls, and possibly two of his calves, leaving his yearlings scorched.
“We would have lost the house… if it wouldn’t have been for them guys,” Wintz expressed gratitude.
The challenges of ranching are intensified by climate change, as changing weather patterns threaten rangeland productivity, according to the 2024 state climate change impact assessment by the Nebraska legislature. Drought has already forced ranchers to reduce herd sizes, contributing to higher beef prices, explained Elliott Dennis, an associate professor of agriculture economics at UNL. Despite strong consumer demand for beef, ongoing wildfires and drought may push more ranchers to follow this trend, eventually impacting the entire supply chain.
Nebraska’s cattle industry needs to adapt, Twidwell suggested, possibly by implementing prescribed burns and enhancing fire resilience in buildings. However, these strategies require testing and validation with producers, he cautioned. Meanwhile, the Wintz family continues to face each day with hope for more rain.
“The Sandhills are resilient. The grass is there. It just needs a little bit of moisture to pop up, and they’ll be back,” Wintz said. “It’s just going to be a different year for me: calving different and haying different, summer range different… you gotta let the land come back, I guess. We need the rain.”
