A shock to the system

BARNEVELD, Wis. — Starting a first-generation dairy farm has not been easy for Dylan and Bryanna Handel, but they are not ones to complain. 

The pair has grown a 60-cow herd of registered Jerseys, developed an agritourism business and created a niche market for cheese made with their milk, all while raising their five children.

The life of their dreams was threatened Dec. 14, 2023, when a newly installed substation was activated half a mile away, and their farm fell victim to stray voltage. 

When Dylan and Bryanna went out to milk that evening, their normally docile cows were acting strange.

“The cows were backing up out of the stalls, kicking and acting crazy,” Bryanna Handel said. “It took us 2.5 hours to milk that night.”

The Handels milk 60 cows and raise 60 head of youngstock on their farm near Barneveld. While measures have been taken to fix the stray voltage problem, and the situation has improved, Handel said there are residual issues that cause concern.

The cows continued to act strange, and the somatic cell count rose from 143,000 to 240,000 within a few days. Milk production dropped from 59 pounds to 46 pounds per cow. Handel suspected stray voltage and called the power company that owned the substation. The company conducted ground current tests and found the barn tested at .39 volts and the heifer shed at .81 volts.

“The standard guidelines limit the utilities to .5, so they’re required to do something,” Handel said.

The power company, with Dylan’s help, removed the automatic waterers in the heifer shed and installed equal potential planes.

The planes are designed to neutralize any voltage that a cow might feel, similar to a bird perching on a power line. Handel said it made the numbers on the meters go down, but the heifers’ health continued to decline. Handel suspected they were not drinking the water despite the potential planes being installed.

“They started looking ratty and just didn’t look good,” Handel said. “I thought there was no way they were drinking their water. So, I started filling tubs, and they emptied them three times a day. That was proof that they weren’t drinking out of their waterers. It’s so silly having to water animals by hand in a newer shed with automatic waterers.”

The power company told the Handels the problem was fixed with the potential planes. However, Handel said the next 10 heifers and cows to freshen delivered dead calves, and the cows’ health was declining too. Cows started getting late-lactation displaced abomasums and experiencing extreme ketosis. One older, dry cow was at the bunk one night and then lying dead next to the waterer the next morning.

The Handels had their feed tested for toxins and the milking equipment tested and found the feed to be clean and the equipment to be functional. They felt as though they ruled out any on-farm problems.

“We farmed here for seven years and life was fine,” Handel said. “Now all of a sudden, I have a $2,000 vet bill overnight, and nothing else changed.”

The power company denied that the Handels’ animals were being affected by stray voltage.

“They said until cows can talk, they had to believe in the science,” Handel said.

The next thing the power company looked at was the voltage on the electrical poles going down the Handels’ driveway. Of the 10 poles, seven were above 50 ohms, which is the utilities guideline threshold, Handel said. Ideally, they want them to read closer to 25 ohms. Some of the poles measured over 180 ohms.

They pounded ground rods, which helped the stray voltage to dissipate. The meter readings in the barns dropped to .45 volts. For the second time, the numbers declined, but the symptoms in the barns did not.

The Handels then asked to be isolated on demand from the utility line. To accomplish this, the three-wire system on the farm had to be upgraded to a four-wire system. 

The four-wire electric work was done in February. The power company had to move the pole for the isolator because it was too close to the farm’s pole to be safe.

On the day they came to move the pole, the power company disconnected their neutral and ground to hook it up to the new pole and get the transformer up. That was the first time Handel saw the numbers on the voltage meter drop below .5 volts, when the power to the substation was disconnected. 

“It went to 32 millivolts, which is nothing,” Handel said. “It proved that their neutral was causing the problem.”

Once the isolator was installed and operating, the stray voltage to the farm dropped to a threshold the utility guidelines consider to be safe. There are spikes during peak usage hours, and Handel is trying to work with the power company to determine if there is anything to stop the spikes.

Meanwhile, the cattle continue to suffer from residual effects. All heifers and cows that were pregnant from December through March, when the stray voltage started until power lines were isolated, have continued to experience health issues.

Handel culled six cows in early April that were either first-calf heifers that aborted early or third-lactation cows that never took off in production. One of them had mastitis and did not recover after three weeks of treatment. Autopsies on the animals have revealed severely enlarged livers, confirming ketosis from stress and lack of water.

Handel said they had plans for growth but have been set back from the experience. She is also hesitant to build on the site now that she knows stray voltage exists.

Handel said the experience has cost an estimated $70,000 between culled animals, vet bills, medications, aborted calves, lost production, private consulting and rewiring the farm.

Handel is working with the Public Service Commission to get the ohm guidelines changed so that power companies have to take responsibility for isolating farms at a lower threshold and do a better job of preventing stray voltage.

While the loss of money has caused a burden on the family, Handel said the stress that the experience has put them under is immeasurable.

“At the end of the day, it doesn’t even matter about the cows or the farm; it’s what this did to our family,” Handel said. “The kids should’ve never had to see that many dead animals. They should’ve never had to see them cut open. This has happened to so many farmers, and it just gets pushed under the rug.”