Jared Blackwelder, a farmer from Springfield, Missouri, experienced the shock of his life when he went to the pasture to collect the cows for the evening milking.
To his disbelief, all of his 32 cows were piled on top of each other, dead on the mulch.
Blackwelder couldn’t believe his eyes and was initially unaware of what could have caused this horrific scene, but once he got to his senses, he realized that his cows were likely struck by lightning.
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Stan Coday, president of the Wright County Missouri Farm Bureau, spoke to CBS News of Blackwelder misfortune and said, “[Blackwelder] went out to bring the cows in and that’s when he found them.
“It’s a common occurrence. It does happen. The thing that made this the worst was just the sheer number of cows that were affected.”
The vet who examined the dead cows determined that in was indeed lighting that claimed their lives.
It is believed that the animals were trying to find shelter and hide from the heavy rain and thunder, and that’s when they all gathered under a tree.
“You’re at the mercy of mother nature,” Coday said and added that he lost a cow in the same manner some years ago.
“It’s not like they are pets. But the ones I’m milking, I’ve raised every one of them,” Blackwelder told the Springfield News-Leader. “Dairy cattle are a little different because you mess with them twice a day. It knocks you hard.”
Sadly, the issue with this loss is that it is a financial one at the same time.
News-Leader reported that Blackwelder had insurance but is unsure if that would be enough to cover he losses.
His total loss is over $60,000.
“Most producers don’t carry insurance,” Coday said. “If you lose a cow you’ve lost everything.”
The dead cows can’t even be used for their meat because it’s been hours since the owner found them dead.
“Those animals are damaged and of course they had been there for a few hours when he found them,” Coday said. “In processing an animal, there’s a process that needs to be gone through. They wouldn’t have been fit for human consumption.”
The issue with most farmers of Missouri is that they don’t have dedicated cow barns due to the the state’s milder weather and this incident wasn’t something Blackwelder had control on.
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