We are still iced in over here in our little area of southern Missouri. It is going to be in the forties today so hopefully it will be able to melt most of this.
Its been the hardest on the cows. Our small herd of Jerseys can't leave the woods without crashing to the ice, so we've been hauling them water and hay twice daily. Old Blossom went down on the ice several times as did the young cows, but no trouble so far.
The Holstien dairy where I work had four cows down on the ice who couldn't get up. The ice all around them was bloody where they had skinned themselves trying. It took the tractor and hip-grippers to get them up. Even though he used his tractor to break many wide paths for the cows to use between barn, feeders, water, etc, they still try to go up their usual paths only to discover halfway up or down the hill that they can't keep their footing. We are milking numerous cows with terribly cut teats and udders from falling on the ice. We may lose two quarters on one cow she is so damaged. Haven't lost any animals thankfully. The smaller more agile Jersey/Holstiens are handling it much better than the 1200 lb Holstien cows. More possible ice coming in tomorrow....just hoping and praying this all melts today!
I did learn a lesson while scrambling to bring the cows in to milk the first night. If a cow walks up an icy hill, you had better not be behind her! I almost got creamed into a grease spot when the huge Holstien in front of me fell at the top of the hill and sledded right toward me at top speed. I did the ice splits trying to get out of her way on the slick hillside and made it by inches. I was frantically trying to figure out how to jump on top of her when she hit me because there was no way I wanted to be under her when she hit the bottom of that steep slope!
I am milking 10 does right now and the path between their barn and the milking room is the worst ice spot because it gets all the traffic. We have resorted to spreading quickrete powder on the ice to make it walkable. Even with that I have to force the does to walk it, where before they fought to be first.
I am heartily sick of ice and its problems.
