Wintering cattle in cold climates

[Ky hills]

See, even Kentucky is too far north for me! I could probably take it, but I would be one more unhappy cowboy! I don't think I could survive raising cattle up there where these guys are. I will be the first to say that they are a lot tougher than me. Then again, they probably cringe at the thought if hauling hay all day, digging fence posts and roofing barns in 95 degree weather and 99% humidity, too. But I'd rather do that every day, if I had to, than spend a week helping those fellows. I get hot and I can go sit in the creek, pond or water trough for a few minutes, and be alright for a while. But jumping in the creek wouldn't do me much good if its 40 below!!

I'm the same, it's too cold here in the winter for me too. We are seriously looking to relocate to southeastern OK, where a lot of my wife's family are in the next few years if things work out. I used to think south Florida was where I would go, but lots of people and expensive property doesn't make it as appealing. I've hated winter as long as I can remember. Where we are it gets some of all of it. some winters hardly no snow at all, others can have several inches at a time. Most winters are summed up by cold rains and mud. Then there's the occasional cold snaps that are miserably cold with or without snow and sometimes ice.

 

[Warren Allison]

I can tell you southerners that you must be way tougher than us folks and our cattle up north. There is no way I could survive 95 degree weather, and I doubt my cattle could either. I'll happily put up with some -40 to avoid that weather that is not suitable for man nor beast!

Brahmas, Longhorn, Corriente, Chianina, and their various crosses, will stand out in a pasture at noon in August, and eat up a storm! None of them could survive your winters, except maybe the Longhorns and Chianina. And yes, y'all are a lot tougher! Lot's of Canadians and Yankees move down here to Ga and Fla, and thrive. Never knew anyone from down here looking forward to moving up there!

 

[Silver]

Brahmas, Longhorn, Corriente, Chianina, and their various crosses, will stand out in a pasture at noon in August, and eat up a storm! None of them could survive your winters, except maybe the Longhorns and Chianina. And yes, y'all are a lot tougher! Lot's of Canadians and Yankees move down here to Ga and Fla, and thrive. Never knew anyone from down here looking forward to moving up there!

Believe it or not, we have a few Texans in the area that have no intention of ever leaving lol

 

[Warren Allison]

I'm probably going to Ocala Fl next week with a trailer. Might be nice down south this time of year.

Some awesome 80's! Ocala, the horse trailer capital of the US. A dealership for every brand there is, all in a what..... 6-8 mile strip? Or was when I was in the horse trailer business in the early 2000's. You going through GA on 95 or 75?

 

[Warren Allison]

I'm the same, it's too cold here in the winter for me too. We are seriously looking to relocate to southeastern OK, where a lot of my wife's family are in the next few years if things work out. I used to think south Florida was where I would go, but lots of people and expensive property doesn't make it as appealing. I've hated winter as long as I can remember. Where we are it gets some of all of it. some winters hardly no snow at all, others can have several inches at a time. Most winters are summed up by cold rains and mud. Then there's the occasional cold snaps that are miserably cold with or without snow and sometimes ice.

LA...lower Alabama,....has land you can afford and not as many people. But, the humidity will be a lot worse than SE Oklahoma. If I had ever left the SE, then Texas or Oklahoma would be my choice. I like the political climate there, too!

 

[Warren Allison]

The 95 temp isn't bad in the south. Its the 110, and the fire ants, deer ticks, mosquitoes, snakes. We have a very few snakes and none of the others.

@kenny thomas , how about that black cape of those damned little black flies that every bull wears!

 

[chevytaHOE5674]

In the early summers UP here in the north the skeeters, and black flies will eat you alive. We have no bad spiders or snakes, no fire ants, no wild hogs, no tornados or hurricanes, etc.

But in the winter we often see 16-20+ feet of snowfall and temps that makes your face hurt. Lol

 

[Warren Allison]

In the early summers UP here in the north the skeeters, and black flies will eat you alive. We have no bad spiders or snakes, no fire ants, no wild hogs, no tornados or hurricanes, etc.

But in the winter we often see 16-20+ feet of snowfall and temps that makes your face hurt. Lol

Oh yeah, I have seen video of moose or caribou in Alaska getting eaten alive. The only thing is, there and where you are, this is just a few weeks. Here it is like March to December! But they are a lot better than snow! Most of my life, we might get snow one day a year. And that is usually gone by noon to 2pm. Just enough that school and work is called off, and we get to play in the snow til after lunch. BUT....in 1993, we had a freak blizzard. Snow up to the top strand of barb-wire on the fences. No power ( no heat) for 5 days in the towns, even longer in the country. Main roads impassable for 2-3 days. I promised my self and God, that if he let me live, I would never see snow again in my life. Since then in the winter, if it gets to looking cloudy, I tell the ole lady to load up, we going to Savanah or PCB for a couple days!

 

[1982vett]

I'm probably going to Ocala Fl next week with a trailer. Might be nice down south this time of year.

Lol...it's never "nice" in Florida...

 

[Rydero]

Got to work at 8 dragged a calf in by 8:30 - I guess it starts. Colder than -30. It's so wicked I felt bad about the time between when the calf's head was out and she pushed it the rest of the way. After a minute of licking in the sled and in the barn, much better in there.

 

[Jafruech]

God didn't build barns, he built cattle that were meant to be out in the weather. One really big dairy operator (several thousand cows) who went broke with the whole freestall setup told me, as we were standing next to the barn with the tin flapping in the wind (bank took it, but not the cows!), "No barn was EVER built for cattle. They were all built for PEOPLE, to take care of cattle in."

The cattle are better off outside, than in the barn. But nobody wants to take care of them out in the weather, so they build a barn to make it "easier" to care for them. Years ago, with running water but before electricity, you "NEEDED" a "barn" to keep in the body heat of the cattle so that the water tank wouldn't freeze. (really?... see Silver's post above)... why... because it was "easier" than chopping open water all winter. THAT is what we've all "evolved from" as cattlemen. You have to go back further in history, BEFORE running water... then the animals, unless they were dairy, were kept outside. Dairy though too... built their barns to make it "easier" and "more comfortable, more time efficient, for the man" to milk the cows.... it's hard to milk very many when they're running around in a pasture.

God gave cows legs, let them use them! He also gave them a natural 24/7 milking machine... it's called a calf. He also gave them shelter... it's called a tree. A woodlot is the best "barn" you could ever have. Work WITH the natural system, instead of against it!

There's a lot of things wrong with this.

1. As others said, God didn't move cattle to where they are now and if humans disappeared tomorrow, there'd be a lot of dead cattle across the country within a month. Sure, some would make it and thrive, but there would be a huge loss.

2. Barns / Loafing sheds were built as much to reduce loss as convenience. An acceptable loss in nature isn't an acceptable loss for your herd / business.

3. I'm at 7000 ft elevation and have no trees except the couple that were planted around the house...so much for "shelter" of the natural system.

4. The wind out here is brutal. The last 5 days it has consistently been above 40mph. The best example I can give you for how wrong you are is the Bomb Cyclone of March 2019. Blistering Cold, Whiteout blizzard...75-85 MPH sustained winds. 95MPH wind gusts clocked here before my weather monitor finally broke. When I went out to try and fix the generator the wind picked me up, blew me across the ice about 60 yards into the barn. If you've never experienced 95mph wind in a blizzard...I don't recommend it. I got hit with more flying things than I can recall and am just lucky they missed my head. The drifts where it met any kind of building/fence were insane. I have a 100m long burm with 100m of wind breaks along the corral and working pens with a loafing shed in there. I brought my cows all up the night prior and penned them up in the corral and working pens with them, water, feed, etc sheltered from the wind. They couldn't get out. I didn't have a single loss to frostbite or anything else.

Then you have those who did what you suggested. Some folks to the north of me have oak-brush and trees the cattle bedded down in. They got drifted over and suffocated from the blizzard. Some trusted topography as shelter. Over the next 3 weeks I watched people hauling trailer loads of cow carcasses out of their pastures, and thanked God that I was prepared. All it takes is a single bad storm to pay for all the improvements you made.

I agree with being in synch with nature for most things...but not being prepared for something like that...is just piss poor planning in my opinion

 

[JParrott]

Lol...it's never "nice" in Florida...

I sure liked it from November to March every year. July and August though? That's just wrong.

 

[Lee VanRoss]

I am thinking Ottawa may be more of a problem than cold weather for our northern cowmen.
One can swat a deer fly or prepare for cold weather, the other, not so much...
same on this side of the map.

 

[Rydero]

I am thinking Ottawa may be more of a problem than cold weather for our northern cowmen.
One can swat a deer fly or prepare for cold weather, the other, not so much...
same on this side of the map.

No not today. It's freeze your face off and get an ice cream headache in a few minutes cold out with a wicked wind whistling through. The cold is the type you can't prepare for really. Wear your best stuff and suffer through as best you can. Ottawa hasn't entered my mind at all, not for a minute.

 

[kenny thomas]

Some awesome 80's! Ocala, the horse trailer capital of the US. A dealership for every brand there is, all in a what..... 6-8 mile strip? Or was when I was in the horse trailer business in the early 2000's. You going through GA on 95 or 75?

I-75 probably. About 30 minutes and 12 miles further on I-95 but miss Atlanta. Seems like a good option