• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Feeding cows -50 C winchills

coyote

Well-known member
It was a cool one this morning around -50C windchill, had a good blizzard yesterday.

Sun Dogs
Jan_09_002.JPG


Cows are up in those trees.
Jan_09_005.JPG


Here they come for breakfast.
Jan_09_010.JPG

Jan_09_011.JPG


Bush Rabbit
Jan_09_012.JPG
 

kolanuraven

Well-known member
" good blizzard" :???: :???: :???: :???:

Is some strange Canadian lingo that you're using??? Never heard of such a thing!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 

Denny

Well-known member
Were suppose to get up to 10 inches tonight. I sure hope not but there's no way to stop it.I've got everything fed up and a pile of red oak near the stove and my shorts on looks like a night for a good western movie.
 

cowsense

Well-known member
Coyote.........ain't minus 50 wind chills fun!! :wink: It was kind of a test this morning but we got everything done........water bowls were all running so that was a plus. Nice shelter for your cows....is it an old yardsite??
BTW do you boys still shuck oysters at Agribition???? :lol:
Keep warm!
 

WyomingRancher

Well-known member
Wow, now that is COLD :shock: :shock: :shock: ! You sure have taken good care of your cattle, how much hay will they go through on a day like today?
 

nortexsook

Well-known member
You guys are funny!

-50 is tough.

Anybody read: "Alone in the Wilderness"?

The story about Dick Proenneke building the log cabin in Alaska and living in there alone for 30 years. Pretty salty sum-gum if you ask me. Built it all with his bare hands and a couple hand saws and chisels. -59 in the winters. Ice froze 48" on Twin Lakes where he would hike 4-5 miles almost daily even in the winter.

Pretty good read. Is like a journal.
 

randiliana

Well-known member
Yeah, it was a lovely one this morning. Yesterday evening you could not see the lights from our neighbours 1/2 mile away, it was indeed a good blizzard :wink: . Cows seem to have weathered it well, and the wind finally dropped off about about 10 this morning.

We had fun in the snow too, shoveled out bunks, some were 6 feet deep, plowed out the road, feed yard and as much of the corrals as we could get at. It is hard carrying chop pails when you are sinking past your knees in half-hard (the kind you can almost walk on)snow. On the plus side the waterers were all working, just had to break a bit of ice on them, and the water hole at the dugout wasn't even frozen this morning.
 

DiamondSCattleCo

Well-known member
Y'all just keep that snow down south for a couple more weeks. After burning my tractor down and working fulltime in the day, I'm running a hair late hauling hay home this year. :roll:

But next weekend should see it done. Or at least as done as its gonna git this year. I'm taking a couple weekends off to go snowmobiling before calving season on Feb 15. Hope the cold breaks by then...

Rod
 

randiliana

Well-known member
DiamondSCattleCo said:
Y'all just keep that snow down south for a couple more weeks. After burning my tractor down and working fulltime in the day, I'm running a hair late hauling hay home this year. :roll:

But next weekend should see it done. Or at least as done as its gonna git this year. I'm taking a couple weekends off to go snowmobiling before calving season on Feb 15. Hope the cold breaks by then...

Rod

Hey Rod, been wondering where you've been. Must have been pretty busy by the sounds of it. I sure don't mind all this snow, it means we might just have some water next summer...... Getting sick of all the complaining about it around here already, they are the same ones that complained all summer about no water......
 

PureCountry

Well-known member
WyomingRancher said:
Wow, now that is COLD :shock: :shock: :shock: ! You sure have taken good care of your cattle, how much hay will they go through on a day like today?

When it's been that cold here, the old rule of thumb about 2.5-3% of a cow's bodyweight seems to go right out the bloody window. We've been bale grazing, and the cows have been cleaning everything up far quicker than I plan. Some weeks when it's stayed around -35 and lower, it's worked out to our pairs eating 45-50lbs of good alfalfa/brome hay per day. I try to make 'em wait that day or two until we're scheduled to give them the next week's worth, but in some of this weather, you just can't. Keeping them healthy takes precedence over the budget sometimes.
 

gcreekrch

Well-known member
When it was -35 and colder here our cows were eating up to 40 lbs per day. About half good quality and the other half 6% gut filler.

It is cheaper to keep the weight on than try to build it back before calving.
 

Big Swede

Well-known member
Have you guys heard the latest? All of a sudden there is talk of Global Cooling for the next couple of decades. I've read it in a few magazines in the last couple of weeks. Lack of sunspots or something I guess. Maybe we could tax the citizens of the world for the precious methane that our cattle are exhaling to try to "warm the world." Maybe Al Gore will take up the cause and fix it for us. :roll:

You Canadians and as far as that goes Minnesotans and eastern Dakotans are some tough creatures. We get cold down here in SW South Dakota but the other day it was in the upper 50's. How you and your livestock can take month after month of winter is beyond me.
 

Denny

Well-known member
Big Swede said:
Have you guys heard the latest? All of a sudden there is talk of Global Cooling for the next couple of decades. I've read it in a few magazines in the last couple of weeks. Lack of sunspots or something I guess. Maybe we could tax the citizens of the world for the precious methane that our cattle are exhaling to try to "warm the world." Maybe Al Gore will take up the cause and fix it for us. :roll:

You Canadians and as far as that goes Minnesotans and eastern Dakotans are some tough creatures. We get cold down here in SW South Dakota but the other day it was in the upper 50's. How you and your livestock can take month after month of winter is beyond me.

It's in the -20 degree range here this morning I don't bother to feed until noon as it's alot easier on equipment and the cows are all standing on the east side of a wooded hill soaking up what sunlight has to offer.We only ended up with a little over an inch of snow out of this last deal so I'm not plowing any snow.We run our outdoor wood stove all winter and we also have a fireplace that we burn on these cold days.Nothing feels better on cold day as a house at 80 degrees.
 

burnt

Well-known member
Denny said:
Nothing feels better on cold day as a house at 80 degrees.

Yeah buddy. You don't really appreciate a good solid wood fire until you come in half frozen from feeding cows when it is -20C with a 40KPH wind blowing ice pellets in off of the Great Lakes!

Eat your hearts out, you southerners, you don't know what living is!!! :mrgreen: :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

:idea: Hey 'bama or Mike, you wanna come up for a visit? :lol2: :lol2: :lol2:
 

WyomingRancher

Well-known member
Big Swede said:
Have you guys heard the latest? All of a sudden there is talk of Global Cooling for the next couple of decades. I've read it in a few magazines in the last couple of weeks. Lack of sunspots or something I guess.

I'm reading "Red Hot Lies - How Global Warming Alarmists Use Threats, Fraud, and Deception to Keep You Misinformed". One of my favorite quotes from the book pretty much sums up the global warming mentality:

It was Greenpeace's Stephen Guilbeault who famously affirmed the movement's faith-based nature, confessing that "global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter, that's what we're dealing with." Amen. And the World Wildlife Fund choir sang that record-cold temperatures are entirely consistent with their global warming predictions.
 

DiamondSCattleCo

Well-known member
Well I certainly found out (or rather, had a reminder) that nothing separates water from fuel better than being in the middle of a hayfield 3 miles from home in -37C weather. Managed to cripple the tractor home in first gear and found both filters right full of ice.

<chuckle> Someone wanna buy a northern Saskatchewan ranch?

Rod
 

Jake

Well-known member
I have a question for you up north. I've always been taught that when it gets real cold out to feed the poorer quality, stemmy type hay because it produces more heat when digested because the rumen microbes are working over time to digest it. Any of ya'll up there practice this feeding method or since it's so cold for so long do you have the choice to ration what hay is fed when?
 

gcreekrch

Well-known member
DiamondSCattleCo said:
Well I certainly found out (or rather, had a reminder) that nothing separates water from fuel better than being in the middle of a hayfield 3 miles from home in -37C weather. Managed to cripple the tractor home in first gear and found both filters right full of ice.

<chuckle> Someone wanna buy a northern Saskatchewan ranch?

Rod

Straight up? For 1 on the edge of the world?







Nope, it's -7C here right now and I'm enjoying it! So are the cattle. :D
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Jake said:
I have a question for you up north. I've always been taught that when it gets real cold out to feed the poorer quality, stemmy type hay because it produces more heat when digested because the rumen microbes are working over time to digest it. Any of ya'll up there practice this feeding method or since it's so cold for so long do you have the choice to ration what hay is fed when?

Jake when its real cold and I have to feed extra to compensate- I give them slough grass or straw if I have it... I think good straw may be one of the best for generating heat...But when I do I also keep feeding the grass/alfalfa or alfalfa hay they regular get so they aren't as apt to get compacted..
What is really good is if you have some oat hay...
 

per

Well-known member
Jake, your lignified feed stuffs all have lots of energy. You only need to light a match to some to demonstrate that. Cows like banked brome, slough grass, straw bunches and bales of straw etc when it is cold and snowed on. I think it makes it more palatable and they want to fill that vat as full of energy as they can. As OT eluded to, you still have to feed the microbes because it is the microorganisms that break the fiber down in the rumen. A good source of protein is absolutely necessary to achieve the goal of using high energy low "quality" feed.
 
Top