Stray Voltage devastated and nearly destroyed our dairy farm. Without the help of Mike Holt, our Master electricians/stray voltage experts, electrical engineers, Extension Dairy Specialists, meter companies, our State Representative, an OSHA electrical engineer and a host of others, we would no longer have a dairy farm today.

History: In 1959, my parents gave me a dairy calf as a 4-H project and from there we slowly increased the herd with a goal of 500 dairy cows. We continually built newer facilities, eventually replacing nearly every building on the farm. All along we relied upon our utility stray voltage experts to make sure we did not have stray voltage.

We started loosing animals, production and could not find a definitive or diagnostic reason; we lost hundreds of cows and had reached the point of having to give up. Our team of experts, consisting of veterinarians, nutritionists, Extension Dairy Specialists and a host of others, finally advised us to look at stray voltage.

We brought in and/or consulted with electrical experts, stray voltage experts, the State electric board, electrical inspectors and RUS, in Washington DC. (the Director and Chief of Distribution even came to our farm). RUS told us to contact the Fluke Corporation to confirm that the Fluke meters we were using, were connected properly. Fluke was interested in how their meters could aid in the investigation, resulting in the Fluke article, “Is that a Tingle She Feels?” Our electrical engineers, Master Electrician, stray voltage expert/Master electrician and Mike Holt, helped us gain a better understanding of electricity, the NEC, good electrical engineering and wiring practices that allowed us to cut off and correct the problems we could. OSHA required the correction of some of the utility distribution issues we could not correct, coming to and/or on our dairy farm.

Bottom line, if they had started correcting the stray voltage causes when it first raised its ugly head, in the late seventies, we would not have a problem today. Instead they decided to say, stray voltage is not the problem we once thought it was. As an admittedly, “dumb dairy farmer”, I have one comment, stray voltage is real and it can be solved, with the cooperation of all parties.