GRANT COUNTY, Kan. (KAKE) - Shocking videos spread like wildfire Wednesday, claiming a heatwave killed cattle in southwest Kansas. It left many people wondering if it's even real.

"I have seen some of the videos around, and it's again, it's it's certainly not something that you ever want to see or something that you ever want to deal with," said Scarlett Hagins with the Kansas Livestock Association.

It turns out, it is real.

Hagins says while she doesn't have exact numbers, thousands of cattle did die from heat stress across an area near Ulysses. She says there was a sharp temperature increase in a short amount of time, on top of a humidity increase and little to no wind.

"If you add all of those things together in such a short amount of time, it led to cattle suffering from some heat stress in that area of the state," said Hagins.

Hagins says while heat stress kills some livestock every year, a loss like this is financially and emotionally devastating.

"It's a significant impact. Of course, these cattle would be around, have a value of around $2,000 per head, as their market-ready animals," said Hagins. "Any kind of animal loss is significant to a producer, to cattle feeder, to a rancher. No one wants to see any kind of loss like this."

Hagins says there are some federal disaster programs that would come into play for this that these ranchers will likely take advantage of, but no matter what, she says they'll be feeling this for a long time.