WARNING: This story contains images and descriptions that some readers may find disturbing
A Mankota, Sask., family says they lost 28 cattle in a lightning strike last Friday.
“It’s a big loss, but it could have been a lot worse,” Glen Breer told CBC’s afternoon edition.
The Briere family was not at their home in Mankota, about 170 miles southwest of Regina, when the lightning struck. They suspect the cattle were trying to escape the storm and made it to the pasture fence where it happened.
Among the dead were 14 cows, 13 calves and the father of the herd.
“I couldn’t believe why these cows had their heads in the fence or half their bodies were in the fence,” he said.
“One calf we found there was right through the fence and pointed 40 feet on the other side. Kind of blew it in half.”
The Briere family lost 28 cattle to lightning last week on their farm near Mankota, Sask. (Submitted by Darla and Glen Breer)
Glenn said finding his cattle in this condition was a tough pill to swallow.
His wife, Darla Brier, said farming is always a risky business prone to losses.
“But you never think you’ll lose so much at once. This is so shocking. Within a second, things can change like that,” she said.
They had 160 cattle, so losing 28 animals was a “big cut”.
“The 14 cows that are dead have all been bred. We lost mothers and babies in them,” Darla said.
“Mothers who are abandoned are looking for their babies, and babies who are abandoned are looking for their mothers. It affects the whole herd.”
LISTEN | Darla and Glen Brier spoke with host Get Matteri on the Afternoon Edition:
Afternoon Edition – Sask8:34 Family from Mankota Sask. lose nearly thirty of their cattle by lightning
This summer brought many thunderstorms to areas across the province. In some places there are strong winds, tornadoes, hail, heavy rain and lightning. Glen Brier and his wife, Darla, returned home to find 28 of their cattle had died due to a storm. Glenn and Darla joined the show to tell us more.
She said the family was lucky to have insurance on the cattle, but the lost calves also meant they would be short of animals for their sale next March.
In addition to the financial blow, having to dig a hole and bury the animals took an emotional toll.
“I was getting them out of that awful fence to the hole. It was a pretty disgusting smell.”
Glenn Brier said there were 14 cows, 13 calves and one herd sire dead along a fence in their pasture after lightning struck the fence. (Submitted by Chelsea Brier)
This summer has brought many thunderstorms, high winds and 15 tornado touch downs so far in Saskatchewan.
Chris Vagaski, a meteorologist and lightning application manager at Vaisala, a company that evaluates environmental models, said they detect 2.5 billion lightning events worldwide each year.
Vagaski said there are five main ways lightning can kill or injure a person or animal, with direct lightning strikes not always being common.
“In this case, all the cattle were standing against the fence and the fence was struck by lightning,” Vagaski said.
“The electric charge went down the fence and hit any of the cattle that were standing against the fence and that’s called conduction.”
Vagaski said that animals are damaged by conduction relatively often around the world.
“Every kind of animal is at greater risk from lightning because their four legs are further away than human legs,” he said. “When lightning strikes, it goes through one set of legs, crosses their body, and then exits through the other pair of legs.”
Vagasky said there has been a lot of lightning on the prairies lately.
“We found thousands of lightning strikes in southern Saskatchewan right over the weekend that these cattle were killed,” he said.
Vagasky said a high pressure system in the central plains of the United States and the Rockies is pushing storms further north into Canada, increasing lightning strikes.
He said about 24,000 people are killed annually by lightning, with almost 250,000 injured.
He advised seeking shelter when a storm looms.
“When it thunders, come indoors.”
He said not to touch plumbing or anything plugged into the wall when lightning strikes.
“In general, the risk of being struck by lightning is low, but the problems arising from being struck by lightning are very high.”
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