Farmers

What Do You Do?

Figuring it out

As a dairy producer, you know your herd's “normal” better than anyone else. Farms that have had stray voltage for extended periods of time may see a slow and not sudden, change to their herd's behaviors, performance and health. Over time, they may resign themselves to their new reality of cow behavior, performance and herd health. It becomes their new normal. Do not let that happen to your farm. Remind yourself often what normal behavior looks like or what normal production and animal health should look like. Compare your farm to others with similar genetics and facilities and see how you stack up. Improvements in the genetics of dairy breeds should cause an uphill trend in production. Any other improvements to your management or facilities should show further upward trending of your production and animal health. If you don’t have access to dairy comp or another farm management program, ask your on-farm consultants to look at your herd’s trends. If you see a flat line or even a decrease over a number of years…this is NOT normal. These are tell-tale signs of an underlying problem on the farm that are not answered by normal changes in day-to-day farm activity. Changes in seasons, feed changes, and momentary stressors can cause those small ups and downs that we know are normal on every single farm. It is important to look at longer term trend lines. Ultimately, cow behavior is one of the biggest red flags in knowing you have stray voltage.

Stray voltage can be caused by either on-farm or utility defects. Check your farm first. Contact your farm electrician. Ask them what experience they have with stray voltage. Go through the electrical system on your farm to identify any potential causes to stray voltage (See tab for electricians). Many farmers who have experienced stray voltage have chosen to install devices that monitor the farm’s ground wires and alert the farmer when there is current on them. If you are unable to identify any problems with the farm’s electrical system, or if you made some upgrades or fixed issues that the electrician identified and the cows are still telling you there is something wrong in their environment, contact your power utility and ask for them to test for stray voltage. Ask them what resistor they are using in the test circuit. Or contact an independent expert in stray voltage to test on your farm. An expert in stray voltage will be able to identify if any stray current found on your farm is coming from the farm’s electrical system (secondary) or from the utility’s side of the system (primary). If it’s coming from the secondary side, work with the expert to identify the on-farm problems and correct them. Well-meaning electricians can miss the smallest detail that could impact your operation.

If the source of the electrical pollution is from the primary side, it will be the responsibility of the electrical supplier to correct their problem and provide safe power to your farm. Farms across the nation have found varying responses by local power companies and how they handle fixing stray voltage. It may take educating them on the science behind using the correct sized resistor in the testing, testing in locations with the most potential to be a problem to the cows and understanding that cows' sensitivity to stray voltage is many times lower than the standards they often refer to.

When contacting people to test for stray voltage, you should ask to identify their testing methods. For example, they should be looking at several cow contact points with the highest potential for problems and be using an oscilloscope to measure at cow contact points with a 125-ohm resistor. The make and model of meter will they are using is important. Utilities use an SVM-10 stray voltage monitor manufactured by PMI to test for stray voltage. This machine has a built in 500-ohm resistor which overstates the true resistance of the cow and cow contact points. If they do use an SVM-10 meter, look at the neutral channel. In their paper, "Source of Stray Voltage and Effect on Cow Health and Performance", Appleman and Gustavson say .35-volts on the neutral will cause problems for cows. It is common knowledge that the neutral channel will be much higher than the cow contact channel. With these two facts, it can be deducted that the .5-volt threshold that triggers utility correction, is far higher than what actually harms the cows. Before testing, ask the person you hire or the utility what will they do to help solve the problem if stray voltage is found.

Build a Team

Work together to make a difference

While you are working on finding the electrical solution, you should also be working closely with your farm management team to help support the herd the best way possible. Identifying and correcting a stray voltage problem can take a very long time and it is important to keep the cows as healthy as possible. Stray voltage, by itself, can cause significant problems with their immune systems and other metabolic processes (see the "Symptoms" page to see all that can go wrong). And it is always a good idea to have regular analysis of your farm’s protocols and facilities to make improvements as needed.

It is critical that you have an open and trusting relationship with the people who work with you on your farm. Veterinarians and nutritionists are an important part of your farm and you need to trust in their skills and knowledge. Producers must also recognize that for decades stray voltage has been an “unspoken” reality of many farms that can go undiagnosed for years. Many experts who will be to your farm will not look at stray voltage as a part of their Differential Diagnosis. Differential Diagnosis is the way to troubleshoot a problem by process of elimination. This is because stray voltage is simply not a topic given anything more than a passing glance, if at all, in vet schools, universities or technical schools. In many schools and workshops, the topic of stray voltage is taught by people from the utilities or the people who are experts on the behalf of utilities. Clearly, this can lead to downplaying an issue that in reality has been a significant problem on many farms for decades.

In order to be successful in getting to the root of your problems and to help your team fully understand the challenges created by undiagnosed stray voltage on the farm, you will need to sit down and go over all aspects of your farm. As you look through the exhaustive list of symptoms that have been observed on farms with known problems with stray voltage, you need to keep in mind that there could be several possible causes for those symptoms. Your job, with your team, is to identify and eliminate as many of those potential causes to get to the real culprit. Everyone sitting at the table will need to check their ego at the door. You all bring valuable information to the discussion and it is important that there is a high level of respect with each other during this process.

It is also important to understand that stray voltage on many farms can be worse at some times compared to others. This could cause symptoms to decrease or become noticeably less at some periods of times compared to others. Often times, a farmer may think the problem is 'fixed", when it really is just not as bad. This phenomenon is often observed when stray voltage is the underlying problem, but a farm makes an improvement to some aspect of their farm or management protocols. There can be a reprieve from the symptoms, but when stray voltage is involved, those reprieves are short lived. Many in the field refer to this phenomenon as “chasing ghosts” or playing "Whack a Mole".

At the same time that you are seeking counsel from your advisors, encourage them to learn more about stray voltage from reputable sources. This is a topic with which they may not be familiar. This website will be a valuable tool for them. Point out the symptoms you are seeing while they are on your farm and tell them what possible causes of those symptoms you have already eliminated.

Do not be too proud to seek counsel from your team. Be willing to listen to the team’s observations. There are always ways that every farm can make improvements. These experts are there to help find solutions. They will also help prioritize any improvements with those that may have the most impact or are simple and realistic for your farm. Also, understand that if stray voltage is the underlying problem, even a perfect farm (there is no such thing) will have ongoing herd problems because of it. So don’t be satisfied with your team ignoring the potential difficulties that stray voltage can cause.

Take Care of Yourself

Finally, stray voltage can cause immense stress on the farm owners, their families and even employees. And stress can cause tremendous frustration, heart ache, anger and serious mental and physical health problems. Seek help from your family, friends, doctors or church family to get through this time. Not addressing that elephant in the room can lead to fracturing of families and relationships.

Stray voltage does not have to mean the collapse of your farm. Don’t ignore the problem, seek experts to help in all aspects of your farm and take care of yourself and the people around you. The sooner you address stray voltage on your farm, the sooner you can get back to enjoying life as it was meant to be.