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Cattle deaths

lyledunn
Some 10 prize bullocks died in quick succession whilst housed over winter in a cattle shed. The government vet was unable to reach a conclusion on cause but apparently does not discount electric shock as an indirect cause. 

The shed comprises steel columns and trusses with corrugated iron sheeting over. The floor comprises re-Inforced concrete slats over the slurry tank. The pens have steel barriers supported by steel posts all of which are heavily corroded but still making contact with other albeit fortuitously.

The earthing system is TT with the shed steelwork on its own providing a substantially low impedance of 5 ohms using a loop tester. A 100mA RCD protects the rather ropey lighting circuits.defccf32df3c757507a0db6ad0a35f87-huge-a5af3537-8eae-4a3c-9126-68fa60b61ac7.jpg

whilst the floor could be wet, I can’t conceive how a voltage difference could be established even if the steelwork was at 230v

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    I cannot distinguish if the purlins are timber or steel, the rest of the frame is steel. I am assuming that the frame is electrically conductive from one end of the building to the other.


    It seems more likely to me that an animal was having a good rub against a steel stanchion with its four feet on the steel slat floor and an electrical fault at high level, perhaps on the lighting circuit, livened up the steel frame and its stanchions, rather than the floor becoming live.


    You could make up a timber frame with four nails in it spaced as the animals feet are, then position it on the floor to take various test readings between the nails and also between them and the stanchions to establish what voltage gradient may exist between the stanchions and the floor if there is 240 volts on the steel frame, also across the floor in various locations. First off you need to determine what you need to know to know which tester to use.


    I would also have a look about the place for a dodgy extension lead that may have been rolled up and put away.


    Andy Betteridge 


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  • 0
    I cannot distinguish if the purlins are timber or steel, the rest of the frame is steel. I am assuming that the frame is electrically conductive from one end of the building to the other.


    It seems more likely to me that an animal was having a good rub against a steel stanchion with its four feet on the steel slat floor and an electrical fault at high level, perhaps on the lighting circuit, livened up the steel frame and its stanchions, rather than the floor becoming live.


    You could make up a timber frame with four nails in it spaced as the animals feet are, then position it on the floor to take various test readings between the nails and also between them and the stanchions to establish what voltage gradient may exist between the stanchions and the floor if there is 240 volts on the steel frame, also across the floor in various locations. First off you need to determine what you need to know to know which tester to use.


    I would also have a look about the place for a dodgy extension lead that may have been rolled up and put away.


    Andy Betteridge 


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