The Daily Star reports that on Sunday night, fire tore through a barn on a dairy farm in Franklin, killing over 20 milk cows and calves and putting an end to a century of dairy farming by the Boning family.
Some of the cows were able to be rescued from the barn, the Daily Star reports, but the fire was burning so fiercely that firefighters had to abandon the rescue effort. Some of the rescued cows suffered from smoke inhalation and will be sold at auction for beef.
"You could hear the cows bellowing inside," [Franklin fire chief Thomas] Worden said. "It was so hot and so fast, we couldn't do a lot. We had to abandon the effort."
Farmer Renea Halstead Boning told the reporter that the fire means the end of her family's dairy business:
The Boning farm has about 15 dry cows and heifers that were in a field across the street, family members said, but the dairy operation won't be rebuilt.
"Life goes on," Halstead Boning said. 'We'll pick up, and we'll go on."
