Just Us N Texas
Well-Known Member
Hubby was on his way to work late this afternoon (night shift), and we were having a pretty rough storm. Lots of lightning. The large cattle farm about 2 miles down the road from us,, was coming up on his right and left. On the left, he saw a triple bolt of lightning rolling through the field. It hit a barbed wire fence, and 20 head of prime young beef went down. He called a couple of people to try and get in touch with the owner, then called me, and asked me to call someone who might have his phone number. I got in touch with someone who had the gentleman's phone number. Half way to work, hubby said it was just storming so badly, he was sick from watching all the cattle go down, and the roads were flooding pretty badly. He called in and came back. The owner was there, and several neighbors. Several of the cattle were dead, those he was loading and taking away to bury. He cut throats of those not quite dead, and let them bleed out. He gave those to the neighbors to try and avoid a total wastage of all that cornfed prime beef. I called every processing plant, locker, and even deer processor within 100 miles to get the calves taken in and processed. It seems there is a law in Texas that the cow must be alive, and the processing plant must be the one that kills it and then processes it. No one will process that beef. And all because of mad cow disease. That is when that law went into effect. Anyway, in my back yard and in the driveway there is a processing party going on. Sure hope they can get it all processed before it ruins. Couple of the neighbors have extra room in their freezers so the meat will be going there. I am just heartsick that the cattleman lost all that prime beef, and so many died on the spot. My husband was just sick at his stomach at the wastage. They wanted to hang and process the cattle in the horse barn, but I was afraid of what would happen to the horses minds, with all that blood smell, so they are hanging them on the front end loader, and in the trees to process them. It sure is slow going!