More than five dozen calves priced between $1,800 and $2,000 a piece were stolen from a farm inOhio, according to the Mercer County Sheriff's Office.
At some point between 10 p.m. Saturday, May 2, and 6 a.m. Sunday, May 3, local time, 64 calves were stolen from a farm in the village of Coldwater, roughly two hours north of Cincinnati.
In a Facebook post on May 3,Derek Joseph Gaerke, a co-owner of Gaerke Brother Farms, said the calves are 13 weeks old, had been freshly weaned, and most of their tails are docked. He added that they were stolen from a turkey barn that had been converted into a calf starter barn.
According to Gaerke, while his company owns the cattle, they were in the care of Selhorst Farms, which was in the process of "starting" the calves, or transitioning them from a liquid to solid feed diet.
Here are more details on the cattle theft.
Mercer County Sheriff Doug Timmerman told local outletThe Daily Standardthat the calves, specifically called Holstein calves, are worth between $1,800 and $2,000 each.
They each weigh around 250 pounds and can be identified by their distinctive black and white or red and white markings.
Holsteins have been bred for the past 2,000 years, and are regarded as “an efficient, high-producing “ dairy cow, according toOklahoma State University’s Department of Animal and Food Sciences.
The department cited a testing production program conducted in the U.S. in 1987, which found that a Holstein’s average yearly output includes 17,408 pounds of milk, 632 pounds of butterfat and 550 pounds of protein.
The Daily Standard reported that not all of the calves were taken during the operation, a detail Timmerman believes is revealing.
Source: Drudge Report
