Heartbroken Texas rancher reveals he has lost most of his cattle herd in deadly Smokehouse Creek Fire that torched 1million acres of land and left two people dead

The raging Smokehouse Creek Fire in Texas is still burning as area farmers and ranchers take stock of the tremendous loss of cattle and land they are now facing.

Shane Pennington, 56, is a ranch manager near Canadian, Texas, who told CNN about the devastating loss of dozens and dozens of cattle from a herd he's worked hard to cultivate over the years.

He said that upon returning to the ranch following the fire that has killed two people, he and his staff have found around 50 dead cattle, as some nursing cows desperately search for their lost calves.

'We're not finding many calves,' he said. 'So I know they burned up.'

The flames that engulfed the ranch just a few days ago decimated Pennington's herd, causing horrible injuries to some of the cows that weren't killed.

Ranch manager Shane Pennington shared the devastating aftermath of the Smokehouse Creek Fire. More than 50 members of his herd are dead, and he is expecting to lose more to after effects of the flame

Dead cows are still being found on properties across Texas, days after the worst of the Smokehouse Creek Fire devastated the area

Some of the animals' tails were burned, others were blinded by the flames.

'It just burned all the hair off them,' he said. 'Their feet are coming off. Their hooves, they're bloody.'

Pennington gestured toward a calf whose feet were burned and told the reporter he wasn't sure the baby animal would make it.

'It's extremely hard to see 'em suffer. I've raised some of them since they were babies,' he said. 'It's just hard.'

When he saw the fire barreling toward the ranch last week, he said he didn't experience fear.

'I wasn't scared. I was more angry I guess. Twenty years of taking care of this, and it could all be gone,' he said.

'I wasn't really fearful for the house, I figured it would probably be okay. I was more worried about the cattle.'

He said that when he made the decision to evacuate the ranch, he said he felt like he 'didn't do enough' to save his herd.

He explained that despite his desperate attempt to save as many cows as possible, 'I didn't have time and the way it was coming, there was nowhere to go with them.' 

Farmers and those in the agricultural industry more broadly say the wildfire, which has burned more than a million acres of land and counting, will continue to impact the cattle industry for years.

As Pennington explained, it takes years to cultivate a solid herd, and traumatized cows often fail to reproduce.

'You're job is to keep them alive,' he said. A job made exponentially harder by the devastating fallout of the fire.

'It's gonna hurt the business, extremely bad.' 

'It's extremely hard to see 'em suffer. I've raised some of them since they were babies,' Pennington said of his herd. 'It's just hard'

One person has been confirmed dead and dozens of cattle have also been killed as devastating video footage has showed cattle burned to death in the aftermath of wildfires sweeping across Texas 

Horrifying clips show cattle storming in their herds to get away from the smoke and flames

Devastating video footage shows cattle burned to death in the aftermath of wildfires sweeping across Texas

A firefighters with the Flower Mound Fire Department helps to contain a wildfire in the panhandle region of Texas

'Homes have burned in almost every direction,' Hemphill County Judge Lisa Johnson told local newspaper The Canadian Record

The aerial image shows the damage in the aftermath of Texas wildfires 

The wildfires sweeping across the Texas Panhandle have led evacuations, power outages and the temporary shutdown a nuclear weapons facility.

Last week, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 60 counties in his state experiencing the impact of the out-of-control flames. 

'Texans are urged to limit activities that could create sparks and take precautions to keep their loved ones safe,' Abbott said.

More than 5,400 people in Texas were without power for a day last week as lines went dead due to fire damage.

The Pantex plant, the country's main facility that assembles and disassembles America's nuclear arsenal, evacuated most of its personnel on Tuesday night.

By the next morning, however, Pantex announced that the facility was 'open for normal day shift operations' and that all personnel were to report for duty according to their assigned schedule.