Owner of Poisoned Cow Herd in Ault Sues Feeding System Contractor

A ranching company in Ault claims that a contractor he hired to set up a feeding system for his cows ended up poisoning thousands of his livestock.

Great Western Dairy of Ault filed a lawsuit against MWI Animal Health for installing a faulty nutrition feeding system in 2014 that was used to combine nutritional additives and cow feed.

At first, the system seemed to function well, but according to the Greeley Tribune, Great Western began to discover problems with the installation in 2018.

There was a major spike in the volume of Vitamin D supplements it needed to buy from MWI to keep that dispenser full. Upon inspection, the dairy said the nutritional system was dispensing between 220,000 to 280,000 IUs of Vitamin D to the herd per day instead of the recommended 16,000 to 20,000 IUs between February and November 2018.

Great Western Dairy says that between February and November of 2018 they had multiple cows die from milk fever, heart damage and reproductive problems. According to the Greeley Tribune, they have 11,000 animals, 4,200 of which are milking cows.

MWI is denying that the system directly caused harm to the herd, while Great Western Dairy is demanding a jury trial.

Source: Greeley Tribune