That bit about no one, or few, injured/killed while tending 20K cows has me thinking “insurance fire.” IT’S a DAIRY. There’s no way you can be milking 80,000 tits without involving at least a couple/three/maybe four really fast cowboys/dairy maids?
And let’s say it was a slow starting fire and the workers had time to run? Most of the cows could not have died instantly and would require putting down. No doubt a Texas Dairy would have a few rifles handy but 20,000 rounds of ammo? Even I would have trouble rounding up that much on short notice. Just weeeeiiird
Milking would be done in a 24-hour robotic parlor. Probably at least 10 parlors. No human milkers. Still, there would need to be a fair number of herdsmen. It also seems that this was a family operation, a well-liked and respected family. So what happened here? Was this done to them on purpose? You’re right, its very weird.