Shelter for cattle?

[OmaMutti]

We have raised beef cattle in a moderate climate where they just sheltered in groves of trees when necessary. We are now planning to have some in another area where winters get into the teens but are usually above 0 degrees. What kind of shelter do they need? Run-in sheds? Enclosed barns?

[Ken Scharabok]

If they simply have a windbreak they should be fine. When mine have access to a shelter they prefer to stay outside. However, occasionally I see one standing there with only its head inside.

At the moment we are getting lows in the high teens or low 20s. Even newborn calves seem to be doing fine.

[ozark_jewels]

That sounds like the temps we normally get here. Our Jerseys do not have a shelter at all and didn't use it when they did. They prefer to stay in the valley in the trees if its bad out. We have had a very cold stretch lately(down below 0* every night and highs in the teens during the day), and they are all fine, even the three month old heifer. We always see to it that very young calves can get in the barn if they want to. Bottle calves use the barn when its available, calves on momma prefer to stay out with the herd.

[travlnusa]

Our cows (angus) have access to the barn, but they just stay outside. We will bring them into the barn to calf in Feb, but they would rather just stay out there.

I am considering changing to fall calving, and will most likely just let them calf outside.

[Haggis]

We get some fairly chilly weather up in in Northern Minnesota and it is as cold inside the barn as it is outside; we've had straight on temps down to -65. We let the cattle into the barn and out of the wind (the wind has the hardest effect on them). We also allow the litter to build up under foot in winter; it produces heat as it tries to break down.

On sunny windless days, even if the temps are at -20 or -30 the cows (Jerseys) will lay outside in the sun, but if the wind is blowing just a little, they are out of it. All our cows want is a wind break, no doubt a shelter belt of Pine trees would serve them as well as a barn or shed.

[JulieLou42]

Mine stay out most of the time. All they have is a 3 sided shed, with some of that and the roof blown off!

They rarely get into it...only when very windy and sometimes when rainy.

We've had temps down into -5* overnight and not higher than 10* during the daytime, and they stayed outside most that time.

Come heat of summer, they like to get in the shade, tho' and that shed is all they have, tho' I plan to improve it this year. They don't have any trees they can get under.

The calf was born with a long, thick coat of fur in July...go figure...1/2 Jersey, 3/8 Guernsey, 1/8 Angus. Where'd that fur come from?

[jerzeygurl]

we do tend to feed more in the cold, as they burn more calories keeping warm

[montysky]

Wind break or a 3 sided shed is it, even for a Montana winter. Like the Other Posters have said it is the wind that the cattle hate.

[Rick Allen]

I'd suggest a run-in or three sided shed as a minimum. Trees can provide a wind break but freezing rain can be real hard on cattle if they can't keep dry. Although we rerely get freezing rain in the winter I saw my cows push through a fence to get up next to our house the first winter we were here. It was down around 10 and they were covered with ice and were miserable.

After the cows invaded our home space I built a crude shelter on a mound in the back of our property where the ground falls away on all sides. It stays dry. The manure will also migrate away from a shelter on a hill. A good shelter will save on the feed bill to.

If they are comfy they will burn less calories to stay warm. I can drive my tractor into the shelter I built. It has never needed cleaning but if it did I could scoop it out with the bucket on my tractor. You can't always do that in a barn.

My next project will be a round bale storage shelter with a sliding feed gate on one end. As the cows eat their way toward the center of the storeage shelter they will be making space under the roof to lay down. It's nice to be able to use a building for more then one thing. /RA