“It’s typically some of each,” Reinemann said. “There’s always some coming from each side.”

According to the Haldersons’ suit, NSP found excessive voltage in one of their barns beginning in 1996 but failed to report it. In 2011, the Haldersons hired a consultant who found high levels of electricity and concluded it was coming from the utility’s distribution system.

Halderson, a longtime member of the Gale-Ettrick-Trempealeau school board, claims this led to reduced milk production and the loss of $5.8 million in profits between 2004 and 2011 when Xcel installed equipment designed to reduce stray voltage.

“Until the stray voltage was eliminated, the Haldersons had to deal with the consequences of watching their herd struggle and fail to thrive,” the suit claims that Xcel “left the Haldersons to sit for 15 years when, even under its own guidances, it had data from which it should have concluded that there was a significant stray voltage issue at the dairy.”

Also named in the suit was Star Blends LLC, which the Haldersons said provided bad feed in June 2011 — shortly after Xcel installed equipment to address the stray voltage — that killed some of their cows and left others sick. The Sparta feed company settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.