Hundreds of thousands of red Skittles coated a Wisconsin highway after the candies fell off a flatbed pickup Tuesday.

The spill happened shortly before 9 p.m. on County Highway S near Blackbird Road, the Dodge County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post. The Skittles were intended to become cattle feed after failing to make the cut for packaging. They spilled after the box they were carried in became wet in the rain.

“We got a big whiff which is obviously the smell of Skittles,” Sheriff Dale Schmidt said, according to WBAY-TV.

As corn prices have risen, farmers have turned to discarded cookies, candies, fruit, and other food products to feed their cattle, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported.

While some have turned their noses up at the practice, John Waller, a professor of animal nutrition at the University of Tennessee, told LiveScience in 2012 that feeding discarded candy to cattle is a viable diet.

"It keeps fat material from going out in the landfill, and it's a good way to get nutrients in these cattle. The alternative would be to put [the candy] in a landfill somewhere," he said.

Dodge County Highway Commissioner Brian Field told WKOW-TV the Skittles probably helped treat the road and prevent icy conditions.

Postal worker Holly Millard told the station the spill brightened her day. "It's a little hint of Spring, I guess, pink Skittles everywhere," she said.

The incident sparked a rainbow of reactions on Twitter.

Is this for real? They feed our cows failed red Skittles?? Skittles Fall From Truck, Coat Wisconsin Highway in Red https://t.co/DiGs6I7h3m — Jennifer Reed (@TalaMcGreen) January 19, 2017

once you get past the headline, you learn that they feed cattle red skittles and a bunch of other garbage: https://t.co/lM7K60oaFj — joshua downs (@joshua0484) January 19, 2017

I've long dreamed of thishttps://t.co/nKzbkRKYVI — Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) January 19, 2017