"Don't taze me, bro'.
Posted on 01/08/2008 5:47:58 PM PST by BGHater
In lawsuits filed against utilities, some farmers contend stray voltage from overloaded power lines nearby has killed their cattle. Xcel Energy argues the cow deaths could be blamed on other factors.
As dead cow No. 79 lay stiff in a tractor scoop one recent cold morning on Greg Siewert's dairy farm, it was pretty clear in the nearby sick barn which would become No. 80.
Wobbly on three legs, the fourth swollen and kinked at her side, one cow stared out below stooped shoulders, her black and white coat hanging dull and low from a grim row of ribs.
"It's a slow, painful tortuous death, is what it is for them," said Siewert, who with his father, Harlan, owns Siewert Holsteins in Zumbro Falls. "It's like watching someone die of AIDS."
But Siewert contends it's not disease that's killing his cows. It's electricity. Specifically, it's something called "stray voltage" from a nearby Xcel power line. He has filed a $4 million lawsuit in Wabasha County District Court against Xcel.
The utility, in its legal response, argues that bad farming could be at fault, that cows get sick from bad herd management, improper feed, and a general lack of "cow comfort," as it's described in the dairy world.
Xcel also argues this kind of dispute belongs before utility regulators -- in Minnesota, the Public Utilities Commission -- not in court.
The Siewerts' suit is one of at least six in southern Minnesota -- and one of three against Xcel, the first against the utility in Minnesota since 1992, several attorneys said.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
"Don't taze me, bro'.
Do we know if a swat team has visited this farm lately?
I’ll have to side with the utility on this one ...
kucinich thinks its alien abduction.
I do not understand why anyone would want to live there.
BTW, "Bush's Fault".
Have they ruled out John’s Disease?
I work for an electric coop. We have paid out money for stray voltage cases in the past but not lately. One time we lost a big case to a man with a fish farm. One day long after the case had been settled, the linemen were up in that area doing something and one of them said to the owner of the place, “I wouldn’t buy any trout from you.” When the man asked why that was so, the lineman said “Because they can’t swim in a little current”.
Don’t be so sure.
Some local dairy farmers in central Texas used the “stray voltage” scam in the early 1990’s to win a court case fro millions against the local utility coop utility organization.
I went to high school with the son of one of the farmers. They collected about 3million and kept right on dairy farming.
Talk about a rip off of the electric coop!!
Those guys are just using a well established scam to rip off the public funds......
I agree with you that it sounds odd. Many horse farms here graze animals under high voltage transfer lines. Haven’t yet heard of any being zapped, and I used to work for an electrical utility.
Um, what is John’s Disease?
Was wondering that myself and I'm too lazy to Google it. Been around cattle all my life and don't recall hearing of that one.
It's only overloaded powerlines doing the damage, I wonder why that is and how overloaded plays into the lawsuit.
Maybe urinal (you know John) disease.
Oh! Ha-ha. (You’re not serious.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johne’s_disease
“Johne’s disease (pronounced “yo-knees”) is a contagious, chronic and usually fatal infection that affects primarily the small intestine of ruminants. A ruminant is any hooved animal that digests its food in two steps, first by eating the raw material then regurgitating and eating a semi-digested form known as cud. Ruminants include cattle, goats, sheep, camels, llamas, giraffes, bison, buffalo, deer, wildebeest, and antelope. All ruminants are susceptible to Johne’s disease, which is sometimes called paratuberculosis. The disease is worldwide in distribution.
“
You would think they would have a vet out there, but I would say you are close.
When the powerlines around here get overloaded, we (me, my neighbor, and Earl from across town) go out in rubber boots with plastic buckets to scoop up the volts that leak out.
Nice blue glow, crackly-like. I put the stuff into a funnel to feed into the wires to light my house.
I never thought it could be making me sick! Did the cows lap it up? They’ll eat anything. Or maybe they rolled in it?
“I wonder why that is and how overloaded plays into the lawsuit.”
If they’re overloaded, the electricity leaks out. The utility should manage the amount of electricity in the wires so they don’t leak- the basis of a tort.
The utility, by negligence, caused electricity to leak out of the wires, injuring the cows, so the lack of hygiene and disease control on the farm is paid for by the negligent utility.
Coupling to the fields from the power lines (magnetic and electric) induces voltage in metal nearby, like water pipes, milking machines, feed bunkers and so on, especially if the items are not properly grounded. The cows get a shock from them and stop eating and drinking. This is bad for the cows.
Running more voltage and current induces more stray leakage. Proper grounding of metal can help eliminate the problem.
This scam has been around since the REA days.
Stray voltages? Some of them can make great pets. They should catch them and get them nice homes and they don’t cost much to own. Kids especially like them. In the winter time around here, they like to hide in sweaters, hair, and carpets. Then all of a sudden, they jump out. It’s such a shock! But then there are the wild ones that can never be tamed. They give a lot of those to guys on death row.
So, how long have these power lines been up? If a long time, why are they now suddenly killing cows? Is the energy leaking out of holes in the wires? Those damn woodpeckers are always making the wires leaky.
Power lines? No. Land mines.
Zuben says sluice, not juice.
"Coupling to the fields from the power lines (magnetic and electric) induces voltage in metal nearby, like water pipes, milking machines, feed bunkers and so on,"
This can only happen when the line and neutral wires are installed improperly. It happens whenever there's a large spacial separation between those 2 wires, as in when one designs a circuit on the cheap and cuts the amt of copper used. The coupling depends on the current level in the separated wires, and what's coupled must be within the loop of the wire, so high volt transmission lines don't couple well at all. Grounding coupled elements generally wastes a lot of power that ends up as unusable heat.
Nope, it’s real.
We had the same problem back in the 70’s and 80’s in a hog unit. Killed a bunch of baby pigs over a peroid of several months before we finally zeroed in on it.
Making sure that everything, including a lot of stuff that doens’t look like it would need extra ground, solved it.
Sometimes it’s more complicated than that.
It is as simple as the loop, it’s finding that loop that becomes complicated.
Of course Remecade is $7000 per treatment every 6 weeks and antibiotics are about $20, so who knows.
John Edwards, aka, the Breck girl is orgasmic over the whole notion.
Johne’s is a thickening of the gut cause by a virus I believe. It doesn’t affect older cattle. It’s contracted at an early age and usually by the time the cattle are about 2 years old it becomes apparent. The cattle can eat like crazy but they can no longer absorb the nutrients, in effect they starve to death. Manure becomes almost like water as the feed flies right through them and they waste away.
I cannot stress how incredibly dumb this is.
No, I didn’t stay at a holiday express last night, but I do have a physics degree. :p
It is pronounces Yoonnnnies. Like You -own -ies. But spelled John’s I think.
It is a chronic wasting disease that ends in death. Once in a herd it tends to sprad from cow to cow.
To eliminate the voltage, they need to take a partially sick cow and take her to a completely different location where there is no known voltage and see if she recovers.
are these cloned cows by any chance?
IMHO -- Simple answer, if the alleged stray voltage kills the cows it would kill the people. People need only about 6-8 ma across their heart to kill, a very very small amount of current compared to motors. The stray voltage, which you can feel at times, needs current to kill, a completed circuit. Grounding is critical and must be done to code, no exceptions. GFIs can stop stray currents before they become lethal.
Grounding is extremely important for any farm type application. It must be done to code.
Last paragraph sums it up .... "Some farmers have experienced stray voltage, but it has also been used for decades as an excuse for issues on the farm," said David Weinand, dairy development grants administrator at the Minnesota Department of Agriculture.
And now it's on to man caused global warming, before long the cows will get sick again and then ...
One of the big advantages of an ignorant society(jurors) and slick lawyers is lawsuits based on feelings not facts. See John Edwards for the channeling part.
Maybe these are REALLY tall cows and they just happen to walk under one of the powerlines, touch a line where the insulation has worn thin and then POW!!! - circuit complete (as well as dinner!).
Well, it’s a good story, but overhead power lines have no insulation, they are ‘bare wire’.
Tall cows and cranes beware.
We had a local crane operator hit one of the high voltage overheads, spectacular loud boom, wires dropped and fried the crane. Fortunately the operator wasn’t hurt.
Just push a 3 ft copper rod into the ground and take some voltage readings. Take some EMF air readings and you will be amazed at the electromagnetic potential surrounding power lines. Its like living in an MRI machine. Just because you can't see it, hear it, taste it, smell it, etc doesnt mean it doesn't exist....
We are all drowning in an invisible swamp of electromagnetic radiation from cell phone towers, radio and tv towers, WI-FI situations and lots of other miscellaneous sources of EM radiation.
What you cant see can kill you. Just ask the Chernobyl residents.
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