Winter vs. Cows

A frosty look at the farm...pretty to look at, hard to work in.

Well, winter is here.  It was inevitable.  Forecasts call for even colder temperature for the weekend (Sunday might not even make it above 0!).  Cold is usually harder on the people working with our cows than the actual cows.  We work hard to prevent any problems the cows might have with the cold. 

First we provide them shelter from the snow, cold, wind, and moisture.  Our barns are made to be cool inside.  Right now the manure is freezing to the alleys, so you ask...why don't you heat the barn.  There's a major problem with that....cows have winter hair!  Cows grow a thick coat of hair each winter, by putting them in a heated barn they would sweat heavily and catch a "cow cold".  Instead of warming the cows, we allow their hair to insulate them.  We work hard to keep them dry and comfortable with fresh bedding often.  With that thick hair they hardly notice the cool temps. 

The cold dry air is drying out my skin.  My hands are cracked....and it is also drying out our cows' skin.  We use a special teat dip for our cows with lots of moisturizers in it (just like a lotion).  We also make sure that cows leaving the parlor have dry teats, because wet teats can get skin damage and in extreme cold even frost bite!

The calves are the most susceptible to the cold weather.  New calves are quickly moved from the calving pen.  New wet calves can very easily get frost bite (especially their ears!), so we swiftly dry them off, put them in a calf coat, bed them in with lots of straw, and feed them lots of warm colostrum.  As they grow we make sure to increase the calories that we feed them.  Cold weather means they are using more of their own energy to stay warm, so we compensate for that by feeding extra milk each day.  Calves also have unlimited access to calf starter. 

Older heifers also eat extra calories and enjoy extra bedding.  All of the extra effort is worth it, knowing our cows are doing well...it just takes a lot of extra time and work on our part.  So...chores are taking a lot longer than they would in fall, spring or summer....bear with us, it's going to be another long Minnesota Winter.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The radio is blaring Christmas tunes, and the weather is agreeing with the season-we have snow, we have cold, and we have blowing. It's been hard to deal with this winter weather though, because it is so extreme. We have been dealing with temperatures much below zero, wind chills much below zero, winds over 30 mph, and 6 inches of snow. This weather has cause a few problems and challenges. With cold weather we have do to some extra things each day to continue to take good care of our cows.

Challenges:

• Frozen pipes: Those pipes, with the right amount of wind will ALWAYS freeze! Water is a critical nutrient for cows and calves so we HAVE to thaw the pipes everyday, sometimes twice a day.
• Snow removal: snow blows everywhere and gets into everything. We must push snow, shovel snow, and blow snow in order to just get into the barn to feed and milk the cows.
• Moving: yes moving is so much harder now, with 4 plus layers of clothes on it get to be pretty cumbersome to walk around.
• Starting Tractors: yeah, tractors really don't like to start in the winter-it's too cold and their fuel systems like to "gel" up.
• Frozen manure: hot, fresh cow pies will freeze in an instant on the right day. Manure is so much harder to move when it is frozen-making clean up so much more difficult.

Extra Cold Weather Tasks:

• Feeding the cows extra feed: cows need extra calories to stay warm during the winter months, just like we do. Long winter hair helps to keep cows warm, but heating from the inside out works for cows just like hot soup in people =)
• Bedding the cows extra: Cows need extra bedding to stay dry and warm. Cows and calves like to "nest" in their bedding in the winter. Therefore we need to make sure that we supply LOTS of straw for everyone.
• Feeding the calves extra milk: Calves need extra milk as well for extra calories, so even get a calf "jacket" or "blanket" to stay warm on those cold winter nights.
• Baby Calf Watch: We have to keep an extra eye on the dry cows due soon to have their babies. Winter is not a great time to have a calf. Typically we would be enjoying temps about 25 right now, but thanks to this artic chill we have about 12 cows yet to calve before Christmas and they are all at risk for frost bite. We check on each of them at least 6 times each day, so that the moment that they start labor we can move them to a warm pen indoors to have their calf safely-we always do the best that we can for our cows and calves so a good start is critical!