Storm Damages Poultry, Cattle Farms

A tornado that swept through Northwest Arkansas on the night of March 12 damaged several farms.

Josh Thompson said the storm destroyed one of his turkey houses, killed 1,000 chicks and did about $70,000 in damage.

Thompson, whose family owns J.T. Farms of Huntsville, has four 12,800-SF turkey houses at the farm. His total turkey flock numbers about 35,000.

The storm destroyed one turkey house and damaged another, Thompson said.

“As far as I’m aware, I’m the only one who has had any structural damage,” he said, referring to his neighbors.

Thompson said a farm hand and his wife were in the turkey house trying to calm the birds when the electricity went out. They left just before the roof caved in. That caused the birds to panic.

“They all ran to the end of the house and piled up on each other and smothered,” Thompson said.

Thompson said the destroyed turkey house was valued at about $50,000. Losing 1,000 chicks probably cost him another $4,000.

Violet Piercy said her daughter’s farm near Centerton had considerable damage. Linda and Mike Blain own the 60-acre farm and lease another 120 acres.

Piercy said the storm destroyed a turkey house, but it was being used for hay storage, so no turkeys were killed. The storm did kill two head of cattle that were apparently hit by falling tree limbs, she said.

“The worst part was it destroyed their fencing,” Piercy said. “They had to take every head of cattle they had on their place and move them to another farm.”

Piercy said the farm had about 50 head of cattle.

“It literally ripped the barbed wire off the posts and disposed of it somewhere,” Piercy said. “It left them with a horrendous mess.”