PROSPECT — More than 120 members of the Butler County Farm Bureau gathered Thursday for the bureau's annual spring meeting to hear updates on membership and agricultural issues.

Attorney Al Linsday, who was born and raised on a farm, was the guest speaker. County Commissioner Kim Geyer also addressed the audience in the Prospect Borough Volunteer Fire Department hall.

Lindsay talked about a phenomenon called stray voltage. He said it causes disease in cows and reduces milk production.

“I like taking farm cases. I like representing farmers. Farming is very hard,” Lindsay said.

He said the technical name for stray voltage is neutral earth voltage, in which damage on the neutral line of a power line causes power to flow down ground lines and enter cows standing in moist soil, causing stress that inhibits their ability to release the milk they produce.

Cows will “dribble” milk causing automatic milking machines to continually milk the cows and damage their udders, he said. The damaged udders become infected with painful mastitis, which makes cows reluctant to enter milking parlors, he said.

“What stray voltage does, it changes your cows' behavior. Anyone who thinks electricity doesn't change behavior never peed on an electric fence,” Lindsay said.

He said he has handled several cases involving the phenomenon.

“Stray voltage is not a myth,” he said.

All three county commissioners attended the meeting. Geyer reviewed work the commissioners have done to benefit farmers.

She said the commissioners used natural gas impact fee money to increase funding for farmland preservation, the Butler County Conservation District and parks and recreation, and leveraged that money to obtain more than $1 million for farmland preservation.

“We are working to preserve as many farms as possible in Butler County,” Geyer said, adding that 57 farms covering 6,000 acres have been preserved through the program.

Bureau member Ken Metrick said the bureau wants to give two scholarships to students pursuing education in agriculture or a trade they plan to apply to agriculture.

“There's a lot more to farming than growing corn and cows,” Metrick said.

Brittany Speer, of the Young Farmers and Ranchers, which is now known as Young Ag Professionals, said the group has 15 members and is always looking for new members between the ages of 18 to 40.

The group is planning events including a farm tour and is trying to get people who aren't farmers to attend, Speer said.

She said the group also developed new rural road safety signs for farms. The signs read “Farmer at Work. Slow Down.”