Nine cows were killed by a lightning strike on their Waikato paddock during Saturday night's wild weather storm.

Kihikihi farmer Russell Brown had 134 cattle - valued between $1500 and $2000 each - but woke early in the morning to find his animals dead next to a wire fence.

''I went down to get the cows in the morning - about quarter past five I 'spose. When I was opening the gate I saw one under the fence,'' Mr Brown said.

''As I got into the paddock they were all lined up along the fence, all tipped over, nine of them.''

He expected to lose one or two animals throughout the year but after suffering through this year's dry spell and with the expectation of a profitable new year, losing this amount of productive stock was the last thing he needed.

''We're just winding up to our peak so it couldn't have happened at a worse time, really."

He said the herd tended to huddle together by the fences during an storm with their hind quarters toward the prevailing wind and with no trees in the paddock they may have attracted the strike.

''They all would've been standing together and lightning has just hit a post and blew that to smitherines and whether its shot along the wires or not, we're not quite sure.''

''We're had the vet out and had a look and she confirmed it was from the lightning.''

Fragments of the fence post were blown up to 50-metres from where the lightning struck, leaving a jagged stump protruding from the ground.

Mr Brown and his wife Renee and their three children were huddled away from ''a hell of a storm'' but never expected to lose their animals.''

That crack that came through just after 11 o'clock, it shock the whole house.

She was a hell of a bang so we knew she was close.

''The farming community has rallied around the Browns in support with offers from friends and strangers to replace lost stock.

''I've got three coming tomorrow,'' he said. ''It's amazing.''

''For want of a better word it makes you a bit emotional really that people would step up like that.''

The carcasses were cleared from his property and taken away by a collection service to be processed and with that, it was time to tend to his remaining stock.

''This is the year we were all excited about but we'll get by. It's another day and there are still cows to feed and milk so it's just one of those things in life.''