A WEST Devon farmer has described the ?frightening? moments when he could only watch as his prized milking herd were felled by a huge electricity surge.

Peter Banbury and his wife Sally, who farm near Inwardleigh, were milking their cows sometime after 7.30am last Wednesday when they heard a loud bang and their animals suddenly began crashing to the ground.

?We just heard a bang and all the cows dropped to the floor, they bellowed and roared. It was quite a panic and a horrendous thing to see,? Mr Banbury said.

The frightening scene was repeated two more times within the milking parlour but fortunately, none of the Holstein Freisian cows died in the incident.

Luckily for the Banburys, they were standing on rubber matting and wearing rubber boots so were not electrocuted by the 11,000 volts shooting through the floor of the parlour at Oakgates Farm.

The entire dairy herd of 120 animals, including those in the yard outside the parlour, were knocked off their feet and lay still for several seconds, after power earthed from a damaged mains power cable in one of the farm?s fields.

?Some of them got back up quite quickly, others decided it was best to stay lying down,? he said.

The couple alerted electricity suppliers Western Power Distribution who discovered the fault originated not from the farm?s electrics, but from the main cable supplying the whole area.

An insulator was damaged on cabling held up by a pole at the edge of the field beside the milking parlour, causing power to earth down the pole ? which burst into flames ? and shoot across the wet field into the parlour.

Western Power Distribution?s engineers had to get the couple to leave the premises while they made it safe.

Two hours later they were able to return and resume milking the cows using the farm?s generator. ?It was difficult to calm them down,? said Mr Banbury. ?They have definitely improved in the last couple of days, but there is still a bit of nervousness in the herd,? he said.

Mr Banbury, who took over the family farm from his father, said the herd would have to have a thorough examination before they could be sure what the effect had been on the cattle, some of whom are due to calve soon.

?We do not know where we are with the health of the animals, I have heard so many conflicting reports on what the long-term health effects could be,? he said.

Other homes in the area were without mains electricity for much of the day, while engineers worked to repair the cabling.

A Western Power Distribution spokesperson said: ?We were able to switch power off remotely from our control room and we immediately dispatched a team to the area.

?There were 243 customers affected by the switch-off, with three-quarters of them back on within an hour on an alternative power supply. We replaced the pole and equipment and power was restored to the remaining customers by 4.40pm.?