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From the Beeb

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A large number of goats in Taiwan may have died of exhaustion because
of noise from a wind farm.

A farmer on an outlying island told the BBC he had lost more than 400
animals after eight giant wind turbines were installed close to his
grazing land.

The Ministry of Agriculture says it suspects that noise may have
caused the goats' demise through lack of sleep.

The power company, Taipower, has offered to pay for part of the costs
of building a new farmhouse elsewhere.

A spokesman for the company said the cause of the goats' deaths still
needed to be investigated, but that it doubted the goats died from the
noise.

Before the wind farm was built about four years ago, farmer Kuo
Jing-shan had about 700 goats.

Shortly after the electricity-generating turbines were installed, the
57-year-old says his animals started to die. He now has just 250 goats
left.

"The goats looked skinny and they weren't eating. One night I went out
to the farmhouse and the goats were all standing up; they weren't
sleeping.

"I didn't know why. If I had known, I would've done something to stop
the dying," he told the BBC's Cindy Sui in Taiwan.

A local livestock inspector from the agriculture ministry said that Mr
Kuo was the only farmer to have reported such large-scale deaths.

He said his claim was plausible because of all the farmers in the
Penghu archipelago, his farm was closest to the wind turbines.

"Abnormal noises could affect the normal growth and feeding intake of
animals and cause them to suffer sleep deprivation," Lu Ming-tseng
said.

Thanks to Lan Sluder of BelizeFirst.com for this interesting story.

from a friend...

i read a similar story about windfarms and bats. something about the turbine creating such an intense drop in air pressure spinning around that when bats flew near them it ruptured all the blood vessels in their lungs and they die.

Whats the going price on 400 prize goats??

Could be something to this, 'cuz dairy cows love country music.

Ya but can they do the two step?

Farms downsize with miniature cows...

By P.J. Huffstutter
9:59 PM PDT, May 22, 2009
Reporting from Tekamah, Neb. -- Walking through their lowing herd of several hundred cattle, Ali and Kenny Petersen were like two Gullivers on a Lilliputian roundup.

The half-sized cows barely reached Kenny's waist. The ranch's border collie stared eye-to-eye with wandering calves.

"Aren't they sweet?" asked Ali Petersen, 52, shooing Half-Pint, Buttercup and a dozen other cattle across a holding pen. "They're my babies, every little one of them."

The Petersens once raised normal-sized bovines on this stretch of Nebraska's rolling eastern grasslands, but with skyrocketing feed costs, the couple decided to downsize.

They bought minicows -- compact cattle with stocky bodies, smaller frames and relatively tiny appetites.

Their miniature Herefords consume about half that of a full-sized cow yet produce 50% to 75% of the rib-eyes and fillets, according to researchers and budget-conscious farmers.

"We get more sirloin and less soup bone," Ali said. "People used to look at them and laugh. Now, they want to own them."

"Aren't they sweet?" asked Ali Petersen, 52, shooing Half-Pint, Buttercup and a dozen other cattle across a holding pen. "They're my babies, every little one of them."

Then

"We get more sirloin and less soup bone," Ali said. "People used to look at them and laugh. Now, they want to own them."

I hope these two don't have children.