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Cow circles

G

gcreekrch

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 22, 2008
Messages
11,768
Location
west chilcotin bc
A warm -28c from a -47 morning. Truck thought it would be a Liberal this morning and not start but an hour in the shop had it going. Was plugged in too. Different cord tonight…
Cows are liking some added protein and will be cutting back on hay when it warms up.
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leanin' H said:
Only if the wind blows in circles. If not, the cows on the windy side block it but nobody blocks it for them
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and if you watch the cows move around the circle taking turn to block for each other. Dobson's book when they camped with cows on the trail to Vancouver the cows walked from hay pile to hay pile all night.
 
jodywy said:
and if you watch the cows move around the circle taking turn to block for each other. Dobson's book when they camped with cows on the trail to Vancouver the cows walked from hay pile to hay pile all night.
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just saying I was taught when it is blizzard conditions to feed in a tight circle by Stockmen that were lot older them me
 
leanin' H said:
Man that's cold. I don't know how y'all get by in that weather. Tell the penguins hello for me please.
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I keep telling you penguins are on the south pole. Dave is on the north pole. That is where the Eskimos live. They are his neighbors. They hunt Polar bears and eat whale blubber.
 
Growing up in high-elevation Colorado on a mesa ranch, we loose stacked our hay and had movable panels that were moved in as the stack was consumed. Our cows always wintered nicely and were fed in a circle since the haystacks were round.

My family believed that getting some extra fat on the cows in the fall was the best guard against winter losses. We started feeding cake in the fall as soon as we brought them into winter pasture. Once the snow started building, we opened the area to the haystacks. We continued feeding cake all winter even though our hay was mostly alfalfa.

In blizzard conditions, they all were covered with snow freezing on their hair, including their faces and while it looked like they were cold they were warm because that ice worked as an insulator. That extra fall fat layer helped retain their body heat as long as they were constantly eating and maintaining it.

When blizzard conditions were impending, we moved the panels in tight against the stack and they could eat for several days if we weren't able to get to them. We never lost a cow due to winter.

We always topped our alfalfa loose hay stacks with three feet of orchard and Timothy grass. It was easier to comb and made a roof that shed water and held the snow cover on the surface even as it thawed.

I may be confused, but I think it was somewhere around Dillon Montana that several of the large ranches put their hay up in loose stacks about 1970 or so. They still used the old wooden slide stackers on one ranch and the thing that amazed me was some of these stacks were 5 miles from the nearest ranch house. An old cow hand I chatted with that ran a snowmobile repair shop all summer out in the middle of nowhere on some back highway, told me that 6 months of the year their only transportation was snowmobiles and snowcats so he spent summers repairing them and readying them for winter.
 
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Mountain Cowgirl said:
Growing up in high-elevation Colorado on a mesa ranch, we loose stacked our hay and had movable panels that were moved in as the stack was consumed. Our cows always wintered nicely and were fed in a circle since the haystacks were round.

My family believed that getting some extra fat on the cows in the fall was the best guard against winter losses. We started feeding cake in the fall as soon as we brought them into winter pasture. Once the snow started building, we opened the area to the haystacks. We continued feeding cake all winter even though our hay was mostly alfalfa.

In blizzard conditions, they all were covered with snow freezing on their hair, including their faces and while it looked like they were cold they were warm because that ice worked as an insulator. That extra fall fat layer helped retain their body heat as long as they were constantly eating and maintaining it.

When blizzard conditions were impending, we moved the panels in tight against the stack and they could eat for several days if we weren't able to get to them. We never lost a cow due to winter.

We always topped our alfalfa loose hay stacks with three feet of orchard and Timothy grass. It was easier to comb and made a roof that shed water and held the snow cover on the surface even as it thawed.

I may be confused, but I think it was somewhere around Dillon Montana that several of the large ranches put their hay up in loose stacks about 1970 or so. They still used the old wooden slide stackers on one ranch and the thing that amazed me was some of these stacks were 5 miles from the nearest ranch house. An old cow hand I chatted with that ran a snowmobile repair shop all summer out in the middle of nowhere on some back highway, told me that 6 months of the year their only transportation was snowmobiles and snowcats so he spent summers repairing them and readying them for winter.
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When they used sleds to feed they were careful to go out on the packed snow (same trail) because if they didn't and they fell off they might be there all winter.
 
jodywy said:
well, I grew up in snow country, when there 60 inches of snow cows don't paw thru it. So we went out and fed them behind what shelter there was.
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60" of snow. WOW. 😳 Jody, I can't fathom that!!
I was talking a one-or-two-day storm. The cows are in shelter and it's best not to disturb them
til the blow is over. That's one reason to have the cows in good shape going into winter.
Not meant at you but to the general readers. One friend in SE Montana said the other day,
"some people didn't start feeding their cattle soon enough."
And like MC said, the best insurance is to have your cows in good shape going into winter.
Again, not directed at you, Jody. It's cheaper to have them in good shape going into winter as to try to add condition after winter sets in.
But 60" of snow...that's 5'! I don't think we ever encountered that much snow.
 
Faster horses said:
60" of snow. WOW. 😳 Jody, I can't fathom that!!
I was talking a one-or-two-day storm. The cows are in shelter and it's best not to disturb them
til the blow is over. That's one reason to have the cows in good shape going into winter.
Not meant at you but to the general readers. One friend in SE Montana said the other day,
"some people didn't start feeding their cattle soon enough."
And like MC said, the best insurance is to have your cows in good shape going into winter.
Again, not directed at you, Jody. It's cheaper to have them in good shape going into winter as to try to add condition after winter sets in.
But 60" of snow...that's 5'! I don't think we ever encountered that much snow.
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remember one time blizzard shut down school, we had bale stacker stacks just 7 bales high. We are too a old snowmobile and a car hood sled and would go down top wire of the fence to where we knew we could go Stright to slab stack yard, we load 8 bales find a bunch of cows, roll bales off and pull strings. next day drifts went right to the top of those stacks. we had a long stackyard with a hay shed covering half of it , 8 foot boad fence. I get on a sled and ride down and throw bales off top on the east side.
 
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Faster horses said:
60" of snow. WOW. 😳 Jody, I can't fathom that!!
I was talking a one-or-two-day storm. The cows are in shelter and it's best not to disturb them
til the blow is over. That's one reason to have the cows in good shape going into winter.
Not meant at you but to the general readers. One friend in SE Montana said the other day,
"some people didn't start feeding their cattle soon enough."
And like MC said, the best insurance is to have your cows in good shape going into winter.
Again, not directed at you, Jody. It's cheaper to have them in good shape going into winter as to try to add condition after winter sets in.
But 60" of snow...that's 5'! I don't think we ever encountered that much snow.
Click to expand...
Wow FH, I am surprised to hear that! I figured you had seen some deep snow. Several winters in Colorado we had 6 feet of snow accumulate and had to shovel out by all the house windows and doors where it was up to the eave from sliding off the metal roof. The barn roof made a great sled run.

We got 2 inches here last night and I have yet to get out and clear my drive and walks. I like to do it before someone pulls in and packs it down. My normal sweetheart disposition gets really fowl when that happens. 🐔

Similar to our old Colorado barn known as Mt. Barn Sled slope during the snowy months. I could toboggan sled all the way down to the school bus stop, even after stopping to load on the 3 Wrangler boys. Thanks to the Wranglers boys' mom, I had the uphill ride back home in her pickup since the roads were then plowed. I left my sled in the bus stop shed. No one ever bothered it.

Similar to our barn during the snowy months
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