GIBSON TWP, MI — Police are investigating an odd case of vandalism to a Bay County farmer’s crops, one which could have potentially harmed thousands of cows if not detected in time.
About 4:35 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 22, Bay County Sheriff’s deputies responded to a call placed by a farmer who owns a large farming operation on Saunders Road in Gibson Township, said Sheriff Troy R. Cunningham. The sheriff described the complaint as “a willful, specific intent to harm livestock.”
The perpetrators had taken pieces of aluminum and scrap metal and used zip ties to affix them to stalks of corn, Cunningham said. In all, three of the farmer’s fields had been targeted — one on Stevenson Road between Eight and Nine Mile roads, one on Brown Road between Garfield and Nine Mile roads, and one in Arenac County’s bordering Adams Township, the sheriff said.
“The corn got put through a silage chopper and was ground into fine pieces to feed the dairy cattle,” Cunningham said. “It was intended to cause internal damage to the cows that would have eaten it.”
As the corn was being harvested, the ground up metal shavings began making noises in the farming machinery, causing operators to take notice, Cunningham said.
“The corn harvesters were loading the silage into trucks and taking them to silos for feed for the livestock,” Cunningham continued. “It had so much metal shavings in it, if the cows had eaten it, it probably would have killed them.”
More than 1,000 acres of silage was lost, the sheriff said. Deputies also recovered numerous pieces of metal still tied to standing corn stalks.
The farmer estimated the cost of the ruined silage to be upwards of $500,000. That figure would have been higher had the shavings gone undetected and been fed to the farmer’s 3,000 to 4,000 head of cattle, Cunningham said.
“They caught it before the cows were fed,” Cunningham said. “At this time, there is no reason to believe the cattle were contaminated.”
No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing. Cunningham urged anyone with information about the crime to call the sheriff’s office at 989-895-4050.
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The Link LonkSeptember 30, 2020 at 09:46PM
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1,000 acres of corn in Bay County sabotaged to kill cows, police say - MLive.com
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