SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A Missouri farmer is reeling after lightning killed 32 dairy cows.
According to the Springfield News-Leader, farmer Jared Blackwelder discovered the dead cows when he went to milk them Saturday, hours after he saw an intense lightning strike.
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"They were just piled on top of each other," Blackwelder, whose farm is in Texas County, told the News-Leader. "They were huddled up, trying to get out of rain."
Blackwelder said he raised the cows.
"It knocks you hard," he told the News-Leader.
The lightning strike also dealt a financial blow. Blackwelder, who is insured but doesn't know how much his plan will cover, said the certified organic cows were worth at least $2,000 each, the newspaper reported.
The Wright County Missouri Farm Bureau shared a photo of the cows on Facebook, where it went viral.
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Stan Coday, president of the farm bureau, told CBS News that, unfortunately, the cows' meat couldn't be saved.
"Those animals are damaged and of course they had been there for a few hours when he found them," Coday told CBS News. "In processing an animal, there's a process that needs to be gone through. They wouldn't have been fit for human consumption."