In like a Lion

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RDFF said:
Yeah, well... what a difference a few days can make. It was 23 degrees when I got up this morning... and will be again tomorrow morning, so I took advantage of my "poor man's concrete" and got 'em fed without mud. I put out 5 days worth today ahead of 'em, and will probably be out again tomorrow morning doing the same, because the deep frost is all gone already for the most part, and the "overnight freezing" is over after tonight. Supposed to get up 75 next week, with lows in the low 50's. No rain though, so it should settle out pretty quickly. We had an all day soaker about a week ago that took all the frost out and settled the gravel roads real good.

Getting to be time to put them on a sacrifice area or keep them moving really, really fast.......... starting to see some hints of green just starting if you use a magnifying glass!

April 1, 2023.................................................. and April 6, 2023 same spot in the field (from different angle)
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View attachment 28608
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Currently (I live right about where the red dot is) - at the moment there is no change in the forecast...about to get to the point where most runs off
 

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Still 3 foot of snow on the ground but temps are supposed to hit the 50s and maybe 60 next week. So I'll bet another 2 weeks of feeding on snow pack before I have to move cows onto a sacrifice area.
 
To give you a little perspective how our winter was:
"Normally" we have at least 2' of frost in the ground (according to construction workers "normally" waiting to dig). Talk about poor man's concrete.
This year, at most, we had 3" at a time. Thawing at least every week.
We always have to fight deep mud fall and spring. This year, there isn't any difference. It has been fall-spring since October.
"Normally", get average 120" of snow thru the winter. "Normally", snow on ground from November thru March. We sure have not had anything close to NORMAL this year.
I do see signs of our grass growing!!! in areas where cattle have never been since last October.
 
We don't normally get any frost in the ground where the snow is undisturbed. A 2 foot blanket of snow keeps the ground thawed.

Where the ground is plowed or the snow packed down our frost depth is typically 5 foot or greater. Currently under the highway our ground is frozen to 66 inches deep and thawed 18" down. So we have a while to go before the frost is out.

Our average snowfall is around 180 inches and so far this season we are over 220 inchs (yes thats over 18 feet)...and we might not be done yet.
 
chevytaHOE5674 said:
Our average snowfall is around 180 inches and so far this season we are over 220 inches (yes that's over 18 feet)....
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That's a lot of snow! We don't get the Great Lakes snow effect, but we're at 80 inches this season (70" is plenty) and expect
to hit 60 degrees this weekend, so rain, not snow from here on out. Although we have had snow as late as May.
 
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What a strange winter here in central Kentucky. Cold early with bitter cold and and snow on Christmas. Since then it has alternated between cold and warm with no snow. Plenty of rain but a major wind event about once a week. A drive across the area reveals numbers of large trees down, along with several barns, many a hundred years old or older.
Despite the plentiful rain the ground stayed drier than normal due to the wind and I was able to feed without the normal mudholes and damage.
Grass greened up in February (much earlier than normal) but freezes and cold nights have prolonged the period of winter feeding. It was 85 degrees here earlier in the week, now raining in the 40s. Still windy.
 
RDFF said:
Yeah, well... what a difference a few days can make. It was 23 degrees when I got up this morning... and will be again tomorrow morning, so I took advantage of my "poor man's concrete" and got 'em fed without mud. I put out 5 days worth today ahead of 'em, and will probably be out again tomorrow morning doing the same, because the deep frost is all gone already for the most part, and the "overnight freezing" is over after tonight. Supposed to get up 75 next week, with lows in the low 50's. No rain though, so it should settle out pretty quickly. We had an all day soaker about a week ago that took all the frost out and settled the gravel roads real good.

Getting to be time to put them on a sacrifice area or keep them moving really, really fast.......... starting to see some hints of green just starting if you use a magnifying glass!

April 1, 2023.................................................. and April 6, 2023 same spot in the field (from different angle)
1680398330915.png
View attachment 28608
Click to expand...
about three hundred miles north of you we still have over two feet of snow and drifts over four feet deep. waiting to see how fast it melts net week with temps forecast to start in the 60's Tuesday and overnight above freezing temps.
 
Logan52 said:
What a strange winter here in central Kentucky. Cold early with bitter cold and and snow on Christmas. Since then it has alternated between cold and warm with no snow. Plenty of rain but a major wind event about once a week. A drive across the area reveals numbers of large trees down, along with several barns, many a hundred years old or older.
Despite the plentiful rain the ground stayed drier than normal due to the wind and I was able to feed without the normal mudholes and damage.
Grass greened up in February (much earlier than normal) but freezes and cold nights have prolonged the period of winter feeding. It was 85 degrees here earlier in the week, now raining in the 40s. Still windy.
Click to expand...
Logan , you have described our winter in N Alabama to the t .
 
chevytaHOE5674 said:
Still 3 foot of snow on the ground but temps are supposed to hit the 50s and maybe 60 next week. So I'll bet another 2 weeks of feeding on snow pack before I have to move cows onto a sacrifice area.
Click to expand...
We still have half that yet with no forecast o great warming.
 
We went from 6" of fresh snow on top of our existing 3 foot last Thursday to 73 degrees currently with a dry south wind. Snow out in the open is disappearing quickly. Didn't have to yet but moved cows to a sandy hill top this morning while the wife was around to help.

Supposed to be warm a few more days then snow again by the weekend.
 
This morning I fed in shirt sleeves. Now at 1:00 it is snowing straight across. Snowing hard enough that visibility is under half a mile. The temperature dropped from 48 to 35 degrees so the snow is melting as fast as it hits the ground. But this afternoon project of burning the irrigation ditches is canceled once more.
 
redcowsrule33 said:
Week and a half ago we had a blizzard warning. Yesterday our high was 89. Snow predicted on Sunday. Girls are suffering in their winter coats. These temperature swings are ridiculous!
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These temperature swings are hard on the calves. I have lost to many this spring.
 
1 week ago we got about 6" of fresh snow on top of our 3 feet.

Yesterday it hit 81 degrees. 2 days before that in the 70s. There were 2 nights in there that didn't get below 60 degrees. Very crazy weather. Supposed to snow again this weekend.

Snow in the fields is about gone. In the woods and shade there's still a good bit.
 

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