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NY dairy farmer kills 51 cows, commits suicide


COPAKE, N.Y. � State police in New York say an upstate dairy farmer shot and killed 51 of his milk cows in his barn before turning the rifle on himself.

State police found the body of 59-year-old Dean Pierson in his Copake barn on Thursday. A visitor found a note Pierson had left on the barn door that said not to come in and to call police.

State police would only say that Pierson was having personal issues.

The Columbia County hamlet of Copake is about 115 miles north of New York City.

Local farmers buried the cows outside the barn Friday. They would not discuss Pierson or what had happened, but one of the men said these are hard times to be a farmer.

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Sad deal, there. A man's mind can crack in all sorts of ways.

Truely tragic.

Perhaps this old boy could have used some of that bail out money. Instead it goes to fat cats who are getting fatter and should be in a soup line instead.

Didn't want someone else having his girlfriends after he died

Dairy farming sucks, no time off, none, period. Those cows HAVE to be milked twice a day, no exceptions, ever. Talk about being tied to your job, nothing is worse.

Add to that, all kinds of Federal and state restrictions and all manner of regulations, and then get paid less than it costs you to produce your product, hold onto the farm, cows, and equipment, it's no kind of life for most folks.

My uncle and cousin run a Grade A dairy in Missouri. I doubt either of them has been out of state in years, and I doubt my cousin has been out of the county in the last five years. And losing money every year, at that.

I'm really surprised it doesn't happen more often than it does.

A singularly stupid comment.

Lot's of emotions here from an old farm boy. Humor ain't one of them.

What a shame they buried those cows. They could have at least sold them to one of the Horse Cock or Wiener makers......

I think its one of the hardest vocations to have ,usually born into it ,if you are on your own its a tough life ..I don't know about down there but in canada ,quota is very costly and health regs very stringent .

health officials can cost you BIG time..frustration levels can tear your heart out.

Running a dairy has got to be one of the tougher 'jobs' in agriculture. I sure as hell couldn't handle it.
Too bad about the guy loosing it..


I rememember hearing about a young farmer over in North Dakota.
During harvest he got a brand new combine stuck in some mud. He procedes to pull it out(hooked onto the rear end) with a 4x4 tractor and basically pulled the $200k machine in half.

Went home and killed himself....

Hell, farming ain't an easy life and them dairy boys have it even tougher. I am with the poster that said they are not surprised it don't happen more often.

We are loosing farmers every day that have been on family farms for generations. This is a serious security issue to the nation believe it or not. If we can't feed ourselves without importing food we are truly SCREWED!

Selling the dead cows to a processor ain't gonna happen. Federal regulations would not allow it. And 'sides that, how long had they been dead when found, probably already going bad.

I'm a dairy farmer. It does suck worse and worse all the time with dwindling to negative profit margin these past two years with all kinds of added regulations that cost big bucks with a stone to pay for them.
Life long dairy farmers in their 70's and 80's say it has never been as bad as now nor for as long. I believe the average age is in the mid 50's
Still I would walk away whistling Dixie before pulling a cowardly act like that.

FVA, hang in there bud!

A guy in these parts bought a new articulated tractor during a particularly wet spring and proceeded to buried it. Two D 6's later it was in two and he did the same thing

Will due and thanks.

at my Gram's funeral back in '05 one of our neighboring dairy farmers related this bit of info

In 1976 he was getting 12 cents a pound or gallon (don't remember which unit of measurement he used) and bought a new truck for his farm, it cost him about 5K. Now in 2005 he was getting 13-14 per unit and he'd gone down and looked at new trucks, said by his calculations he should have been making trucks instead of milk.






if you could make a million dollars a year being a dairy farmer it wouldn't be enough for me, (well guess you could get a hired hand and settle for 800K, grin)

but will say this, if you ever have a chance to hire an employee that was raised on a dairy farm, HIRE them FAST. Odds are good it'll be the best hand you ever had.

Yep. My Father was getting paid the same and more back in the late 70's/early 80's as I am getting now. I still have two tractors that my Father bought brand new, in the same year when I was 16. I'm 45 and I'm not holding onto them for sentimental reasons. They are simply paid for.

If those cows were attending mass, would that make them sacred cows?

Folks ran a Diary for 18 years, I got to help with it all the time. Got out of school and I took over for another 8 1/2 years. It was two and a half years I went before I got a day off.

Damn glad I don't Diary anymore, I still have nightmares about it though, every now and then I dream of getting those cows up in the morning, in some of the nastiest weather you can imagine. And it's been 22 years since I did it

I feel for the Dairy farmer, a thankless job for sure.

State police would only say that Pierson was having personal issues.

I'd have to guess Bossie was leaving him. Decided to take her whole family with him.