WAUPUN, Wis. — Something's very strange about the cows in Roy Lemmenes' dairy barn and the details could be shocking--quite literally.
Most cows stick their muzzles in water and guzzle greedily. Lemmenes' only lap at it gingerly with their tongues. Tails flick rapidly across their rumps even when there aren't any flies around to shoo. Rather than stand placid and cow-like in their stalls they do a kind of fidgety bovine rumba, shifting uncomfortably on their feet as if they'd been shod in tight sneakers.
No doubt about it, these are not contented cows. But then again, who would be if every time they went to take a drink, munch on some feed or just rub up against a pipe they were getting zapped by a little electrical tingle?
That's exactly what Lemmenes thinks is happening, even though he can't feel anything himself. Except maybe in the pocketbook. Dairy cows on his spread, 60 miles northwest of Milwaukee, average only about 30 pounds of milk apiece per day when they ought to be producing about 60.
"I'm just losing my shirt on this," despaired Lemmenes, who claims that years of tiny, persistent shocks coming off everything from water cups to the barn stanchions have agitated his herd, shrunk milk yields, chopped $1 million off revenues and forced him into bankruptcy.
It is not so far-fetched a notion as it might sound to city slickers. More and more, dairy farmers are beginning to worry about the potential impact on their herds of a quirky yet only recently investigated phenomenon called "stray voltage."
In essence, stray voltages are excess currents that can spill from many things--from perfectly functioning utility lines to faulty wiring. Usually packing less punch than a common household battery, they flow through grounding systems and onto metal structures and into the earth. Humans don't even notice them.
But, for a variety of technical and biological reasons, stray voltage problems appear to be most acute in barnyard settings. Most affected seem to be cattle, whose natural resistance to electrical current is only one-tenth that of humans. Standing in their bare hoofs on the wet floors of barns or milking parlors doesn't help.
Usually the effect is subtle, but not always. Veterinarian John Ryder said he knew of one farmer whose cows experienced problems only after their hoofs were trimmed. Apparently shorter hoofs meant less electrical resistance.
