OT: Livestock/animals in this weather
- Thread starter dahliaclone
- Start date
channel 13 had a good segment on last night. I thought it was informative
https://whotv.com/2019/01/29/iowa-cattle-farmers-prepare-animals-for-extreme-cold/
I was mighty curious how parents planned to keep the little calves warm and get them fed without freezing in the process. Extra bedding, blankets, and extra milk help. The cows are inside in winter for us except for a few hours so they should be fine. Do wonder about some freestall set ups. Not generally meant for this cold.
Confinement critters will be fine as long as the power stays on and there are no curtain issues.
Anything outside or partial confinement needs plenty of clean dry bedding, feed, and access to unfrozen water. Few occupations have it more miserable in this type of weather than livestock farmers.
Anything outside or partial confinement needs plenty of clean dry bedding, feed, and access to unfrozen water. Few occupations have it more miserable in this type of weather than livestock farmers.
Agreed, I get it that other occupations work outside too but farmers truly have a battle, not just working in the cold but working in the cold and making sure an animal doesn't die.
My dad got out of hogs about 20 years ago (he still crop farms). Weeks like these are a lot more pleasant now!
Honest questions from a city guy. Why would you take the risk of having livestock during the predictable worst of winter? It seems like you are asking for trouble.
Is there a financial reward for having livestock toward the end of winter (higher sale prices because it is more scarce)? Or is it necessarily a year-round thing? Or are livestock farmers just a little crazy?
Is there a financial reward for having livestock toward the end of winter (higher sale prices because it is more scarce)? Or is it necessarily a year-round thing? Or are livestock farmers just a little crazy?
Most places have livestock all year long. You sell what is born but you have the breeding stock all the time. Or the dairy cows.
Also, I think you’d lose a lot of income if you completely cleared out stock for 3 months a year.
We used to have a decent amount of pigs and everything was outside/inside with the exception of farrowing or recently farrowed sows so they were exposed. Usually, on Monday night we would have cleaned everything out and given them fresh bedding which would consist of straw, hay, or bean straw. Where we could, we'd shut doors, however feeders were outside with the exception of the nursery. We could lock them in but there was no heat. I'd say they'd maybe keep the building at zero on a day like today. Typically we would have ground feed for everything last weekend to be sure they had it and also to be sure we weren't running equipment on a day like today. Monday night would be a pretty long night but it needed to be done. I don't recall ever losing animals simply because it was cold. The biggest thing is to make sure there's surface area that they can warm. Otherwise they will pile up and suffocate each other.
Bed them deep, keep the wind off their backs, feed them fed, keep the water from freezing. That's about it. Some farmers pray. Some farmers drink. Long Underwear is a blessing. And grow a beard. Livestock can handle some real ****.
You have to keep the flow going. When I was young, to get the most out of your facilities, we were farrowing 4 times a year. You would have cut one of those farrowings out for no real gain because as long as you're not completely negligent, there are about 3 days that actually provide real worry. Otherwise, you're doing a lot of the same things for a 15 degree day as you are for a -15 degree day.
To answer the most important part of your question first: yes, we are all a LITTLE crazy.. you have to be to deal with livestock.
I don't know if I know anyone who "gets rid of" their livestock for the winter. That's not a viable option. Trust me, if I could ship my cattle south for the winter like my grandparents that'd be ideal, but that's not how it works unfortunately.
If you have livestock, you have measures in place for times like this. Like previous commenters have said: keeping them dry and out of the wind is priority number one especially with calves, lambs, piglets, etc. After that, keeping them fed and the water from freezing is next important. The colder it is, the more they eat (keeps energy up to create body heat).
Hopefully, most livestock guys aren't having to calve/lamb/farrow in this weather. That's a whole other can of worms.
Mpls area urban wildlife is lying low. Fresh snow in my yard like we got a few days ago would usually be trampled with squirrel, rabbit, raccoon, deer and feral cat tracks. Not a single track in the yard right now. BTW, all of those are uninvited and annoying, it's not like i am feeding wild critters like some folk in my city. They think it's cute to post trail cam pictures of raccoons and coyotes feeding on cat food they put out for them. I do not find it cute.
I know of guys that are calving now. The past few years it has been better calving in late Jan than late Feb-Early March. If you do calve this time of year, or really anytime before mid April, you have to have proper places to get the calves out of the weather.
