News

Every farmer’s worst nightmare

A 250 foot wide tornado with 95 mile per hour winds touched down Monday night in Michigan’s Thumb.  In its path, the de Vor Dairy Farm.

“You never expect it, you always see it in pictures and you always hear about it, but you never wonder what if it happens to you.”

Jeroen de Vor works as the assistant herdsman on his family’s 3,000 cow dairy farm.

“We moved here in 2000 and have been expanding ever since.”

The dairy had just completed an expansion project on a new freestall barn before the tornado ripped through.  The farm lost 85 percent of its buildings in the storm, about 50 cows perished, and 150 others were put down or sold at auction due to injuries.

The agricultural community stepped up during the crisis.  Hours after the storm, cattle trailers lined up almost for a mile to reroute stranded cows as others worked frantically to save trapped animals.  More than 200 volunteers were reported helping the next day.  Three local milking equipment companies worked side by side to get the parlor operational just 12 hours after the storm for the 1,500 cows that remained.

A Go Fund Me page has also been set up for De Vor Dairy Farm – Tornado Relief by family friends.