In Missouri, thunderstorms are pretty normal during this season. There’s been a lot of rough weather and flooding lately, leaving behind plenty of damage.
One Saturday morning, Jared Blackwelder and his wife Misty were out on their farm after feeding their dairy cows. They heard some loud noises but didn’t think much of it. Just another storm, they figured.
But later that day, when Jared went to bring the cows in for the evening milking, he found something terrible. Every single one of his 32 cows lay dead, piled up in the pasture. The sight shocked him to the core. The field, once full of life, was now eerily empty except for the tragic scene in front of him.
Stan Coday, the president of the Wright County Missouri Farm Bureau, explained how Jared found the cows. “He went out to get them like any other day, but instead, he stumbled on a disaster.”
CBS News mentioned that lightning strikes like this aren’t too rare, but the number of cows killed all at once made this event truly extreme. When the local vet came out to investigate, he confirmed what everyone feared: lightning had struck and killed all the cows.
The cows had likely huddled together under some trees during the storm, a natural response to seek shelter, but it turned out to be deadly.
“You’re at the mercy of nature,” Coday said, shaking his head. He remembered losing a cow to lightning a few years back. Farmers understand the risks that come with nature, but even knowing that doesn’t make the loss any easier to bear.
“They’re not pets, but I’ve raised every one of them,” Jared shared with the Springfield News-Leader. You could hear the pain in his voice. Dairy cows get handled twice a day, every day, and the connection runs deep. Losing them isn’t just a loss of livestock; it’s a personal blow.
And financially? It’s a catastrophe. Jared mentioned he has insurance, but he’s not sure if it will cover this devastating loss, which he estimates to be around $60,000. That’s because each of those cows, certified organic, was worth between $2,000 to $2,500.
Coday added that most farmers don’t even have insurance to cover their cows. When they lose one, it’s like losing everything.
Some neighbors asked if the meat from the cows could at least be used, but Coday, who also breeds beef cows, had to set the record straight. “The meat can’t be used,” he explained. The cows had been dead for hours by the time Jared found them, making the meat unsafe to eat.
Coday also pointed out that in Missouri, most farmers don’t build separate barns for their cows. The weather is usually mild enough that it isn’t necessary, though, as this tragedy shows, nature can still strike hard.
In the end, Jared, Misty, and their community are left picking up the pieces from a storm no one could have predicted would take so much.
