In a country where livestock outnumber people by an order of 16 to one, animal welfare is no small matter, says a report in The Economist. In Mongolia this year the animals are not faring well at all, and the 2.8 million human inhabitants are feeling their pain. Hundreds of thousands of Mongolians depend directly upon animals for their own livelihood.

Experts warn that the next four to six weeks will see more cold weather and devastated herds, as ever greater numbers of frozen, emaciated animal carcasses dot the vast Mongolian countryside. The disaster is also descending on the nation’s cities and towns, which already suffer from poverty, poor services and high rates of unemployment. Now it seems they must accommodate an influx of tens of thousands of rural migrants who have lost their herds.

Drought, cold and snow are the proximate causes of this season’s widespread misery. But weather alone is not to blame for its severity. In the 20 years since Communist rule in Mongolia ended, herding practices have changed drastically. Privatization meant the dismantling of large collectives, and herders now find themselves missing some of the underappreciated benefits of scale—not to mention, in many cases, access to technical and management expertise of the kind that helped sustain operations through harsh winters.

According to Save the Children, a relief agency active in Mongolia, many distressed herders are advocating a return to the Soviet-style system. But even that would not set things right. The old system depended heavily on the Soviet army’s role as a reliable buyer of Mongolian animal products—as well as on direct subsidies ordered by the Politburo. Whatever the zud may bring in years to come, those days are gone for good.