We went up to our Zephyr place Saturday to load a feeder. We had barely come through the front gate, when a flock of dozens of buzzards took flight from near the cattle pens. We've got a guy who runs cattle on the place. When we walked over toward the pens, we saw 5 head of cattle - 2 cows and 3 calves - dead underneath an oak tree. The tree had a 5' scar on it, indicating a lightning strike. I've seen occasional cases where a single cow or single horse get struck while underneath a tree but I've never seen 5 killed at once. Very sad.

Sad case indeed. I've heard tales, never seen it personally, of ranchers losing a material % of their herd under a tree.

Former boss that grew up on a farm in Illinois had lightning hit a big tree that most of the herd was around in a storm.

Killed 41 cows.

Wife lived on a dairy farm in Michigan. Same scenario as above.

They lost 40. Really big problem on a dairy farm.

That really stinks. Depending on how old those calves were, that's close to a $10,000 loss.

96ags said:

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That really stinks. Depending on how old those calves were, that's close to a $10,000 loss.

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I see what you did there.

And I bet it did. Literally, figuratively and financially.

Mom tells the story of Grandpa losing 52 mamma cows that were huddled up around the only tree in the mile section during a thunderstorm in the Oklahoma Panhandle.

It happens.

Old photo from a colleague.