Cattle and cold

Cattle and cold

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Two important considerations for cattle producers as they protect their livestock from impacts of Arctic cold and other adverse winter weather effects. Water and plenty of it. According to Extension specialist Carl Hoppe. Speaker2: Frozen waters really do have a big effect on cattle performance because once the water freezes and they quit drinking, they quit eating at the same time. So adequate water is paramount, whether. Speaker1: It's manual chopping of ice in water troughs to give cattle H2O access, or. Speaker2: Heating element either below the water bowl, or actually an element that's in the water bowl that turns on and off based on temperature of the water to help keep your water from freezing up. There might be propane or coal fired type things, or wood fired type burners that can be submerged in larger tanks to try to keep the water from freezing up. Speaker1: Just as important, feed especially that with greater energy content for animals to combat Arctic weather conditions and, if needed, high energy supplements such as grain or byproducts in the event of extended cold temperatures. Speaker2: Giving cattle enough feed that ferments with most of the feed do ferment for cattle, creates a lot of heat. And actually, as one person commented to me many years ago, it's like having a space heater inside a cow keeping her warm. That rumen environment really does create a lot of heat for the cow, so they're kind of unique for having that ability to gather some extra energy out of the feeds they consume to heat their bodies when we have cold weather. This isn't just adequate feed the day of the event. This is adequate feed. Months before the event. we'd like to have some body conditions, some fat on the cows so they can draw on that fat. Actually acts like some insulation too. So if we have that extra condition on the animal, they can weather these storms quite well.
Previous ReportCanola and milk
Next ReportCattle testing