CENBizarre photos have emerged showing 22 Aberdeen Angus cows dead in a field after being struck by lightning.
It’s believed the cows were electrocuted when they gathered together near a fence during a thunderstorm on a farm near a village in the municipality of Quehue, in the central Argentine province of La Pampa.
The cows belonged to the Los Corrales breeders, who reportedly tend to cows and bulls of the Aberdeen Angus breed.
A video filmed at the scene shows the cows lying dead on the ground near the fence:
Local media reported each of the animals could be worth between £1,276 and £2,552, meaning farmers could have lost a monetary value of up to £56,114 as a result of losing their livestock.
It is believed the cows were scared by the storm in the area, and gathered near the fence for safety, as the images show.
The lightning strike reportedly hit one of the fence poles, resulting in the electricity being conducted through the fence to the cows, which were killed instantly.
CENOwner of the ranch Ariel Hoven, 35, explained to local media that he did not have any kind of insurance for such a situation.
He said:
It is a bitter moment, the storm happened shortly after strong droughts in La Pampa.
There are cows that could cost between 100,000 and 200,000 ARS or even more. They have no price.
He said, in his working experience, he had lost some isolated animals due to a lightning strike, but never before had he lost such a large number of animals in one go.
Hoven went on to say the cows were buried in the field where they were found.
StoryfulSurprisingly, cows being struck by lightning isn’t a rare occurrence, as eight dead cows were found lying in a row alongside a fence on a farm in Texas earlier this year.
Rancher Bobby Wood III made the grim discovery back in September, following a bout of lightning so strong it bounced from the fence, electrocuting and killing the livestock.
Wood described the scene as the ‘wildest and craziest’ thing he’d ever seen.
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Emma Rosemurgey is an NCTJ trained Journalist who started her career by producing The Royal Rosemurgey newspaper in 2004, which kept her family up to date with the goings on of her sleepy north east village. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston and started her career in regional newspapers before joining Tyla (formerly Pretty 52) in 2017, and progressing onto UNILAD in 2019.