What's the winter going to be like???

[CattleRMe]

The other day we were discussing what the winter is going to be like. Like many is this area the hay crop was short. Some have said it is to be as dry as next winter and some seem to think it will be bad. Just curious as to what you all have seen or are predicting.

One person told me it will take a blizzard to break this drought cycle.

 

[Denny]

The oldtimers here think a guy better have all the hay in by Nov 1st my goal is Oct 1st then cut about 20 cord of firewood and work up a couple of fields for early spring planting one has alot of rocks to pick.I hope thier wrong I have quite a bit of fall pasture I could graze if it does'nt get to bad.

 

[Faster horses]

Well, CattleRme, we had a jam up blizzard this spring (ask Tap about that) and it didn't break anything except the ranchers that lost livestock.
We thought we were going to have a great summer because of the start we had...HAH!! When it quit, it quit.

Since we have been here, the odd numbered years are always better than the even numbered years and that has held true since 1993, when
we moved here. So based on that, I'd say next year will be better.
I'm expecting it too. As for winter, well, anything goes. Make sure you have enough feed on hand for anything. It will keeep if you don't use it.

Hay in the stack is money in the bank. Nope. Hay in the COW is money
in the bank. :shock:

 

[HAY MAKER]

You dont hafta be an optimist to Ranch,but it sure helps,IM looking for better weather,but I will say winters have been too mild around here for the last few years,maybe we are due for a hard one ?..............good luck
PS and yes winters can and do get rough down here.

 

[IL Rancher]

There hasn't been a real nasty winter around here since the winter of 79-80. The locals tell of drifts so deep that they would have been 10-12 feet in the center and being stranded for days at a time. Lucky for me my buddy the neighobr has a big snowblower mounted on the back of his 400 hrose tractor There were a few periods during the witner that were colder than usually or snowier than usually but a warm front would always come in and melt everything offf and it would never stay cold long.

First winter here 00-01 we had a road closed for a couple days as they couldn't keep up with the drifts but by mid Jan. we had stadning water as it got warm for a while Always have the snow storm in March that hits during calving but we don't have winter around here like folks further north and further west... At least not normally. My skid steer did gell up for a week last winter when it got cold early and I hadn't burnt off all the old #2 fuel.

 

[lazy ace]

I'm not sure what the winter will do but in our area it seems that the years sixes and sevens are moisture years. (I hope)

Dad and mom after the spring of 66

The winter of 77 and 78

I'm pretty sure this was late spring of 87.

The winter of 96-97

Before the bull sale in March

Bulls in the same corral and heifers on top of the fence in another pasture

same corral different look

Heifer calf going to feed. (to the left of the posts are haystacks that are covered up)

Like I said I don't know what the winter will do but this is what it has done in the past.

have a cold one

lazy ace

 

[kolanuraven]

Holy Smokes !!!! And I squeal if we get 2" of snow.......

 

[IL Rancher]

The best snow picture we have was taken on the beartooth pass in 99 I think. I'm stsanding on the roof of a jeef and the snow is taller than I was... It was so strange, like driving througha tunnel.

2 inches makes som squeel around here too.. I don't worry unless i is going to be 5-6 and the wind is blowing just right.. That is when we get the nice drifts that you can walk over fences on..

Winter of 97/98 I think it was I visited Chicago and they got 18 inches or something like that in one storm. That was bad in that area as they just aren't used to anything over 3-5 inches. Oh well, I like the snow but I will pass on the 20 inch storms thank yoiu very much.

 

[Faster horses]

WOW, Lazy Ace. I'm sure glad you posted those pictures now instead of during the winter. Somehow it doesn't seem quite as bad looking at the SNOW DRIFTS now, as it would then. :shock:

 

[ranchwife]

FH----would you happen to remember which year we had roughly 3 weeks of 30-40 below......that was the year that all the semis froze on the interstates and we lost dang near our entire Flathead Cherry Tree crop!!! I can't remember if it was 89 or 90!!! I was the deli manager at the town pump in Deer Lodge (couple years before nursing school) and all the semis were pulling into the parking lot and trying to track down engine warmers because their deisel was "gelling up"!!! If I remember right, not much in the way of snow, but sure alot of cold!! :shock: :shock:

 

[Faster horses]

ranchwife, I remember it well. It was the last of Feb. 1989.

We had AI'd some cows and they started calving then. We calved them in that horrible cold weather. Only time we ever syncronized cows and they calved then. We had a wooden barn and none froze their ears.
That storm was so bad, that cows froze their udders and got gangerene,
bulls that got caught in it had the hair blown right off the side to the wind,
mature cows lost their ears. Oh yes, I remember.

 

[Manitoba_Rancher]

Haymaker,


It may get rough down there but I bet youve never experienced any 30 and 40 below stuff!! Thats when it sorts out the boys from the cowboys and the girls from the cowgirls!! :wink:

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

The winter of 06-07 was a killer winter. Could it repeat it's self a 100 years later?

 

[Northern Rancher]

Just was talking to a neighbor and he told me he finished baling in '03 on Feb. 24. The whole crop froze out up here and then it got to wet to bale but no snow really. There was no hay crop because of the drought so guys were baling those short grain crops up as they needed to feed it. Lots of heated feed around that year-we wintered on hot Canola bales that year. If you calve in Feb. in my country 9 years out of ten you'll calve in -40. Were just building some feed paddocks so when it's -40 and a blizzard I just have to open gates to get cows fed. I've done thr froze up tractor thing before too many times. The best way to shorten up a Canadian winter is to have a loan payment due in the spring-time will fly by.