A barn fire that broke out near Brooklyn, Wisconsin, on Tuesday took the lives of 30 dairy cows, including Bur-Wall Buckeye Gigi, a record-setting Holstein.
According to Channel 3000, by the time crews arrived early Tuesday morning to the Behnke dairy farm, the barn — home to 60 cows — was fully engulfed and the roof had already collapsed. The crew was only able to save half the cows before the fire took over.
One of the victims — Bur-Wall Buckeye Gigi — a Wisconsin Holstein that broke the national milk production record in 2016. Gigi set a 365-day record of 74,650 pounds of milk, with 2,126 pounds of fat and 2,251 pounds of protein. By comparison, the actual production average for all U.S. Holstein herds enrolled in production-testing programs in 2014 was 24,953 pounds of milk, 918 pounds of butterfat, and 773 pounds of protein.
Investigators are still trying to determine how the fire started.
