Jesse Garza

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MILWAUKEE — A rain-soaked box aboard a flatbed pickup truck ruptured in Wisconsin, coating a stretch of highway with hundreds of thousands of red Skittles, the Dodge County Sheriff's Office reported.

Sheriff's deputies discovered the candy-covered County Highway S in Beaver Dam, Wis., shortly before 9 p.m. Tuesday, according to a post on the Dodge County Sheriff's Office Facebook page Wednesday.

The Dodge County Highway Department was called to clean up the candy-coated shells — packed with ingredients such as sugar, corn syrup, hydrogenated palm kernel oil, tapioca dextrin, sodium citrate and carnauba wax — which were intended to be cattle feed because they did not make the cut for packaging, according to the sheriff's office.

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As the price of corn increased in recent years, some farmers have turned to discarded food products to feed their cows.

According to a 2012 Reuters report: "In the mix are cookies, gummy worms, marshmallows, fruit loops, orange peels, even dried cranberries. Cattlemen are feeding virtually anything they can get their hands on that will replace the starchy sugar content traditionally delivered to the animals through corn."

It seems red Skittles have joined that list.

Follow Jesse Garza on Twitter: @JJGGarza

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