How much cold can cattle tolerate?

[boondocks]

Boondocks, they should be fine... Im fenceline weaning my march/april heifers right now (started today), and they're just dandy at 14F... we get down to about -10F (-22Cish) most winters and unless it's windy, the cows don't need any shelter, though i do give them about 10-20% more hay when the weather drops below 0F -18C. If it's particularly nasty weather out with wind, I'll let them go into a gulley, but for the most part, they're on the field (that's where I want them to manure, not the gulley), and they're fine with it...

As for summertime, we get 100+F (40C) in the shade every summer, and it's very rare they have shade.. it goes without saying that it's critical they have good water and salt available though.

I think the biggest enemy to cattle is wetness, especially with wind.

Bez, We knew a guy who had a dairy farm in Westlock AB, and the teat disinfectant would freeze on the teats (I think if it's that cold, bacteria isn't going to be a problem) and these were dairy cows. I think it's a lot of what the cows have been raised in, and perhaps not transporting a southern belle up north for wintering.

There are dairy farmers from the coastal area buying big ranches up here where they raise the heifers and they're having good success with it... they become more hardy, eat better food, etc compared to coddled animals at the coast

Thanks Nesikep! How far west are you in BC? Have spent many weeks backpacking in AB and BC. Beautiful area.

 

[Nesikep]

I'm at the east edge of the coast mountains, in Lillooet, which is 2 hours west of Kamloops, 3 hours north of vancouver

My dad backpacked the Pacific Crest trail back in the hippie days

 

[djinwa]

Cows are heat producers in their rumens. Think of a steaming compost pile. Which is why summers can be harder than winters, and you need to give them every advantage to take the heat, like not being black.

This guy has figured out how to heat houses with cow heat.

It wasn't long before the inventive engineer realized that, since a single cow gives off 3,500-4,000 BTU an hour, a mere 15 milkers could provide sufficient excess warmth to heat a standard 2,000-square-foot home. Ramlow then devised a prototype Cowpower system . . . but he tested the unit for a year before he was satisfied enough to put it on the market.

Read more: http://www.motherearthnews.com/homestea ... z2mvsmHIto

 

[djinwa]

BTW, I'm one of those guys who babies my few pet heifers. Was 10 below with wind chill the other night, and were they in the shed with nice deep, dry straw? No, they were over in the pine trees. I figure that's probably their natural instinct to get out of the wind.

Plus, I think sometimes they feel trapped in sheds should predators come. They like laying in more open, facing opposite directions to maximize detection of predators.

 

[CKC1586]

Zero to -20 here was not a problem for mine. With the black skin and white hair could tolerate both heat and cold extremes pretty well. Had shelter if they wanted it. Nighttime was usually when they used it.

 

[randiliana]

We are in the midst of a nasty cold snap right now. Today is supposed to actually get above 0F, the last week has been around -30 with windchills between -40 and -50, and I believe there are areas around us which were colder than that.

Here's what our country looks like. Not much natural shelter here.
Where we usually winter the cows

Our home pasture and you can see the cows in another pasture in the distance

Here's a different pasture with no natural shelter. The cows are coming out of the portable windbreaks in the morning to feed.

Cows coming away from an old farmyard, the majority of our shelter is this farmyard.

 

[polledbull]

down south , and here in NC we have more problems with calf health when it is really hot , than any cold. I hate to see a stragler born after june here , July and Aug . is brutal here for small calves , it can also get really dry and dusty , we call it hot weather pnuemonia or dust pnuemonia . It will Kill a calf fast , if these conditions develope with small calves , say under 2 months old. it never gets cold enough here to worry about cold anyway ,

 

[Beef Man]

90% ofthe cattle in this part of Montana are outside regardless of how cold it is and they do well if fed or have access to an adequate amount of dry feed. Up to an unbeilevable amount of roughage. I do remember aa bliizard in late 1964 that even healthy cattle froze spots and had a lot of frosted lungs. It was a horrible highwind nasty blizzard, a lot of cattle died as did a lot of deer,antilope all birds and any thing else that was either in poor condition or did'nt get to some good protection. I may be wrong but I think there was only 1person killed in it, in this area. 3 winters ago almost all antelope and a lot of whitetail died due to deep snow and cold. Antelope can't live on hay and them that made it near here survived on what they could dig out in the pea and other pulse crop fields. Interesting to watch the sharpe tail grouse and how they stand winter compared to ring neck's. The grouse can fill up on feed and face directly into astorm , ringnecks eat a bit and turn their backs to the wind and snow so their feathers fill up and they'r froze in a bit. The sharp tails used to set on snowbanks eye level withthe house winddows and look in and act like they were enjoying life no matter how nasty was the weather.Just to bad they are'nt better eating as they are natural survivors.

 

[jedstivers]

Here I think it's harder on them than in the areas that get 20 below. We will have days and days of slow rain and 35 degrees.

 

[gonzo]

HAPPY NEW YEAR, WE GOT -0 TEMPS COMIN MY GIRLS ARE EAT'N LIKE HOGS . THEY GENERALLY HUG THE BARN TO STAY OUT OF THE WIND ,ONLY GO INSIDE TO SHYT :bang: THEY DO GREAT JUST KEEP'M FED. :cowboy:

 

[dun]

ONLY GO INSIDE TO SHYT

Can;t say as I blame them!

 

[herofan]

The forecast is showing single digits to -2F three days next week. Any special suggestions? I have the barn door open and plenty of hay out.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

The forecast is showing single digits to -2F three days next week. Any special suggestions? I have the barn door open and plenty of hay out.

Space heaters.

 

[dun]

The forecast is showing single digits to -2F three days next week. Any special suggestions? I have the barn door open and plenty of hay out.

That would be about it!

 

[randiliana]

Supposed to get down to -50 C by tomorrow morning with the wind chill. We gave them all some extra feed right close to their wind breaks. They'll be fine. As long as the early cow hangs on for a few more days we'll be good....

 

[randiliana]

Wind Chill Warning for: R.M. of Mankota including Mankota and Ferland
ISSUED BY ENVIRONMENT CANADA AT 3:08 PM CST Saturday 4 January 2014
Summary
Extreme wind chills colder than minus 40 over the weekend.
Recommended Action

Details
Northwest winds behind yesterday's storm system will usher in much colder temperatures for the weekend. Wind chills of minus 40 to minus 45 are likely across Southern Saskatchewan for the next day or so. The coldest wind chills are expected on Sunday morning, when widespread wind chills between minus 45 and minus 50 are expected. Extreme wind chills will likely last until Monday afternoon. At these extreme wind chill values frostbite on exposed skin may occur in less than 10 minutes.

Please refer to the latest public forecasts for further details.

 

[redcowsrule33]

Hey, that's our forecast!

Keep them full, dry, and out of the wind, they'll be fine.

Fingers crossed for your cow Randi.

 

[randiliana]

Well, now it is 2 cows. They and one older cow will get to spend the next couple of nights in the barn...

 

[Nesikep]

I really don't envy you guys... I'm quite content with -10C now... just cold enough to keep things frozen and clean, warm enough stuff will start when you need it to... Good luck with the calves and weather randiliana!