Lightning strike kills cows on Florida ranch

LITHIA, FL-- Authorities say a single lightning strike likely killed 15 head of cattle at a Tampa-area ranch.

Bar-S-Bar ranch foreman Jerry Stack found the 12 cows, two calves and bull in an open pasture on Thursday morning. The animals were all humpbacked Brahmans, the only kind of cattle raised on the ranch. The bull was worth an estimated $20,000.

Stack says a few of the herd's surviving calves lost their mothers and will have to be bottle-fed.

A lightning researcher at the Global Hydrology and Climate Center in Huntsville, Ala., says the cattle likely all got shocked by a single lightning bolt if they were all standing together.

Hillsborough County authorities say lightning strikes Wednesday night also set five buildings on fire and ignited a brush fire.