their stalls, with some even standing the entire 24 hrs. Heifers would grow long shaggy hair, arch their backs, quit eating, and when their body temperature dropped to 97 degrees, they died. Our remaining heifers reproductive development was delayed and most did not show a heat until they were two years old. The cows exhibited mastitis, high SCC, swollen hocks, burns on their flanks and hocks, really low milk production, loss of feed and water intake, abortions, uterus infections and eventually death. Stray voltage symptoms are well documented and ours were no different. We had increased SCC, increased clinical mastitis, breeding problems, reduced conception, and reduced milk production.
ow has stray voltage affected you, H your cows and your family?
In 2006 we had 22 excellent cows with a herd classification of 88.25. Our heard was the best it ever was. Over the next 6-10 years we watched all of these excellent cows suffer brutal, painful deaths. To watch this happen was horrific because it was out of our control. It has caused us to stop showing, promoting, advertising, and hosting local and international visitors. It has had irreversible health effects on myself and my family. The physical and psychological and emotional effects are more than anyone should bear. The stress is unreal. I’m not proud to say this, but this problem is solely the wrongdoing of our government. It is leaving us financially strapped, broke. The reason I speak out is to protect our family and business and to help others. We have lost 115 cows plus to date in eight years. It can become a consuming problem, but over time more and more expertise has become available. Hydro One now recognizes that sometimes it has a role to play in resolving this issue.
Our cows have suffered; they have had very short life spans. When we were at our worst, half of the cows that freshened either had What has been the most frustrating to be shipped or euthanized. We would have 10 to 15 per cent of our part to date? cows out of the tank due to mastitis at any given time. Once we had a Hydro did five official tests showing that we had no problem monitoring system on our barn, we knew how much hydro we were meanwhile private and other testing showed that we had up to 19 receiving in excess on a daily basis. If we had a hydro spike, we would volts a day coming into our buildings. have even more cows break with mastitis within 18 to 24 hours. Due to their compromised immune systems, drugs did not work effectively I wrote a letter to the DFO Board of Directors explaining my and their milk would not pass a drug test on label use time frames. stray voltage problem and asked for help. I received a form letter back The farm has been severally comprised as well. We went two-and- from a senior staff person explaining the penalty program with a a-half years unable to make a principal payment on our loans. The sample of how weighted averages are calculated with the math done debt-level increased, not due to expansion, but just trying to keep the wrong in the example. I did get an apology from Bill Emmott. DFO business going. The farm virtually came to a standstill. Plans were senior quality staff, and the head OMAFRA dairy vet are quick to say in place to build a new parlour on the end of a housing facility and a “bad management” every time they hear the words “stray voltage.” heifer barn. At this time, it has not happened and is still not financially The most frustrating part of dealing with this problem is the feasible. A hundred thousand has been spent to fix the problem of fact that there is NO one to turn to for help. Over the past four years stray voltage on our farm and more than a million has been lost in I personally have contacted over 50 Ministries and organizations, all milk sales due to low production and treated milk that could not go in with the same answer (that it is not their mandate to help us). We have the tank, cattle replacement costs and extra vet bills. had meetings at the farm with the OSPCA, DFO, IEEE engineers, It has been emotionally, physically and financially draining. You and in the fall, we were on CTV Kitchener News. We took part in watch what you have spent your life trying to build fall apart and four different county meetings to help get Rick Nicholls’ Private have no idea what is happening or how to fix it. In the house, we Members bill 161 passed and to bring awareness to the public about have suffered from insomnia, migraine headaches, joint and limb stray current issues that affect human health. Does every farm owner problems. Now that we have the voltage under control we are sleeping in Ontario know the government has a ruling in place to allow better, our son’s migraine headaches have stopped, and the joint and electrical current to flow on the livestock sector? Did you know that up to 70 per cent of the electricity delivered to you is returned to the limb problems have returned to what is normal due to age. substation through the earth? Do you know that the electrical utilities In our family, the stray voltage affected me the most. I correct the neutral (return wire) to the grounding on your electrical experienced extreme headaches as soon as I laid down at night, so I panel in your barn and house, putting current on your grounding slept in a la-z-boy chair so that my head was elevated. My teeth started system? How is that safe? This puts the potential for current on the to break off. Simple foods that I had eaten for years suddenly gave me taps in your barn and house, showers, swimming pools and you and extreme digestive discomfort. These symptoms were typical of other your cattle. Our single-phase multi-neutral grounded system should clients that David Colling had. have never been used. Multi-neutral grounded means they ground You work so hard for so long and after many years of improving your every four hydro poles to earth and ground every transformer to herd, the improvement can be lost in a few months. The recovery earth as well. Thomas Edison did a five-year study in the late 1800’s process takes years. Trust me, it is very disheartening. Our drop in and concluded that putting electrical current in the earth is harmful milk production was so severe, so fast, from a herd BCA of 230 we to humans and livestock. Europe does not do this; they have phaseplummeted down to 160. After five years of hard work, we are now to-phase hydro (no grounding to the earth or to your electrical panel) at 210. We purchased cows to try to fill our quota, but they could not keeping their customers safe. This problem is nothing more than the handle the volts, and would die within three to six months of arriving greed of our government and their policies. It’s all about MONEY. at our farm. So with milk production losses, purchased animals, larger The lies we have been plagued with are disgraceful. When does the vet bills, increased death losses, plus all the changes we made to rectify customer count? the stray voltage problem, we are well over $300,000 in expenses. Our I think initially you question your management, but luckily I agricultural lender is not able to comprehend the severity of the issue, had an exceptional electrician (Beehler Electric of Berwick, Ontario). nor does he understand that there is not a magic button to push that Nick Beehler was determined to solve our problem and I credit him makes the problem go away. and his son, Steve, for putting this behind us. www.ontario.holstein.ca
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