PRAIRIE RIVER — Ron and Dennis Gel woke up to find two of their cattle herd dead – believing lightning to be the culprit.
“We presume that’s what happened, because there was a wicked ol’ lightning storm,” Ron said.
The lightning storm was on the night of July 14. The next morning when they checked their pasture, they saw the damage.
“As we were going into town I noticed a cow was lying in the pasture so we checked it out and here the cow was dead and the calf was dead beside it. So that’s the only thing we figure could have happened – a hit of lightning.”
The calf was about three days old.
“The calf was just born,” Ron said. “It was actually a nice cow too, but not much a guy can do, I guess.”
The couple owns about 70 cows and calves in their herd. He estimates the cost of his lost cow to around $1,500 and about $700 to $800 for the calf.
Ron said it doesn’t feel very good to suspect a member of your herd was killed in this fashion.
“When lightning hits that close, it’s only a couple hundred yards away from the house.”
Catherine Lang, livestock and feed extension specialist with the ministry of agriculture said there is little a producer can do to protect their livestock from lightning.
“We don’t know what the odds are for animals because it’s not well documented,” Lang said. “Most of the time it’s just a producer finds a dead animal and necropsy reveals it was a lightning strike. It’s not overly common, but it does happen.”
