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Can't Believe It!!!

N

Northern Rancher

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
12,247
Location
saskatchewan
That blizzard pushed some cattle into the dugout banks to get out of the wind-I told Shauna the only way that we'd lose any now is if half the herd crowded on there-they must have because there's at least three dead. Guess we'll get a backhoe out and see what kind of mess we've got-the ice is 8 inches thick but not thick enough. Hope no wind in the morning so I can move them the heck out of there. Guess it was easier on them to drown then to get pulled out and freeze to death but just makes me sick .
 
@#$%*(())_&%#@#$%^%#@!#$% was kind of what lept from my lips first off. Well we got about two months of bale grazing set up in a dry field so I'll move there tomorrow. They were only where they were because my haytruckers were two weeks late.
 
Sorry to hear that, Northern Rancher. It's tough to lose them. Several years ago (1997) we had a bad blizzard on April 7th. We were busy trying to get baby calves and their mothers into better shelter, and had fed hay to a bunch of yearling replacement heifers where they had access to a good post and steel windbreak. We felt fortunate to survive the storm with no casualties.

The weather broke but got drastically cold. All the ponds that had been open froze back up with a half inch of new ice. On the 9th of April, we received another nine inches of snow with a fairly brisk breeze out of the northeast. The heifers drifted to the west, and blundered into a snow-covered pond. Some of them didn't have enough sense to come back out, and thirteen head stood out in about two feet of water until they perished. There were 250 head in the bunch at the time, and it is a wonder that we didn't lose the whole herd.

This country has dry enough conditions at the present time that there isn't a lick of water in that pond today.
 
Gosh that is terrible. The worst I ever had was a cow getting bogged down and taking out a young animal right next to her. Couldn't believe it,, That was a terrible spring for mud but thinking of critters falling throw ice like that.. That would hurt.Sorry NR,
 
i'll get a track hoe out tomorroiw and start fishing them out-the ice too thick to chop them out-it's been -35 windchill last 4 or 5 days. Got them moved to a differant field this A'M hard against the wind.
 
I've always heard about cows falling through ice but I have never experienced it thank goodness.

I have 2 bunches out where I am cutting ice for them to drink, no problems yet.

I have fenced off problem dugouts primarilly for dirt sluffing rather than ice problems. A well built dugout with a 4:1 slope on the ends works for the cows if the dirt will stay put.

I have sure noticed the difference between my black cows and the colored cows I bought in the spring. The blacks go earn their keep, the coloreds would just starve to death if I didn't feed them. Even the calves in the corrals are different with the blacks eating rather than standing in the shelter.
 
Gosh that makes me feel guilty for complaining about our costly hardships down here.
Hope you "weather this storm" and have only sunny days to look forward to.
 
This was kind of a bad luck they drifted with the storm around the dugout bank and out onto the ice. We hadn't had much trouble for years but were sure getting our share lately. Going to sort off a few and move them out to some paddocks in another field the next day or so. Hard to move cattle into the wind when it's -25 for some reason.
 
Well the track hoe finally showed up to fish them out today-we ended up with four cows and a calf in there-of course the old nurse cow and one carrying an embryo had to be in the four. Hopefully there aren't any more under the ice-it wasn't very safe for the hoe operator with all the ice and snow so we didn't break all the ice out-just the end they went it. It could of been alot worse for sure.
 

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