What sort of shelter needed for grazing?

[Looking4ewes]

Greetings,

This will be my first year grazing cattle. I have experience in rotational grazing sheep, which do well with no shelter all year round, but I have no experience with cows. I will be grazing 2 steer calves, one which is a yearling, and the other is 5 months old, in a paddock with two rams. I also will be grazing a 5 month fresh Jersey cow. Right now, the cow is in a barn paddock, and the steers and rams are in an outdoor paddock with two calf huts as shelter and stacks of baleage as a wind block (which is being depleted rapidly). The calf huts will be needed for the pigs come July.

My questions are:

1) Do the steers require shelter in mild weather, i.e. >50 degrees? If so, what kind is recommended for rotational grazing, meaning, easily portable?

2) Can I graze the Jersey cow along with the steers? Her calf was pulled after three days, and he has been weaned for two months. If I can graze them together, do I need a weaning ring on him? Should I wait until she is dry in June - July? I have grazed her tied out on a line before, and can do so again, if needed. I'm trying to reduce the amount of grazing groups, and therefore labor moving fences/water/shelter, etc.

Thanks in advance,

[Callieslamb]

1. I don't think they need shade in 50 degree weather, but they might need a place out of the wind and rain. We built a tarped shelter with cattle panels. It's near the barn and water so they can leave their grazing to get in the shade no matter where I have them grazing at the time. It was a bit of arranging with step-in elec fencing posts to make traveling routes for them but it worked just fine. I moved temporary fences rather than the shelter, since the poles in the shelter are set in concrete.

2. I put my milk cow and her steer together last year with no problems. If yours never nursed, he will probably be fine - just watch them for the first couple of days. They did well together and made great pasture companions for each other.

[sammyd]

The worst time is spring when you can get freezing rain. Really cold and wet is not good.
Really cold is not so bad.
The common European breeds of cattle do better at lower temps. 50 degrees isn't bad at all..Shade in the summer is more of a concern actually, heat can decrease feed intake and slow growth or milk production.
Something they can run under on wet cold days would be nice but most of the time just something to block a bit of wind will suffice.
A shed as the "hub" for your grazing enterprise maybe..they could head out in the morning and eat till they got warm then head back to the shade and water and ruminate till they felt like heading back out.

[oregon woodsmok]

My experience with cattle is that they will not go inside a building unless the weather is beyond horrid.

I had 4 pastures. Each one had an area with big trees where the cattle could get into the shade and had a bit of protection from rain and snow. A couple of the pastures had large wood lots up on a wee bit of elevation so the ground stayed dry.

Every pasture opened into the dry lot where the pond and hay barns were and the cattle always had the option of getting indoors, no matter what pasture they were in. They just had to go into the dry lot and there was a barn open for them.

It's a lot cheaper to have one shelter with lanes that give access than it is to put a shelter into each pasture.

[Looking4ewes]

"It's a lot cheaper to have one shelter with lanes that give access than it is to put a shelter into each pasture."

I totally agree, though I don't have the fencing to make lanes. I leapfrog squares of electronet, moving water and minerals as I rotate into a new paddock. The sheep don't require shelter, though the cows may need some. At least the Jersey will be dry in the heat of summer.

[francismilker]

I don't experience the kind of winter you folks up North do, but this past season we had some arctic air that kept us in single digits for a couple of weeks straight. My cows didn't go in the shelter I gave them access to at all. Instead, they put their backs to the wind down in a low ravine.

[Callieslamb]

My cow spent all day in her shelter in the winter. She came out to eat hay from the feeder, get a drink and hustled her little buns back to her cubby. Jersey's don't have the skin or fat that other cattle have and need more shelter -especially if they are milking. It takes a lot of energy to stay warm AND produce milk. We roll up the sides of our shelter in the summer to provide shade since we don't have trees for them to lay under. They spent much of the afternoons there and went back out to graze when it cooled off in the evenings.

I only wish I could get my sheep into shelters in the winter. They went in 1 day - 1 - all winter. It was a freezing rain. In the summer, they appreciated shade.

[sammyd]

making milk itself produces a lot of heat.

Our girls only sought shelter if it was really windy and wet.

[lonelyfarmgirl]

the only time they would need shelter in in terrible freezing rain. and mostly only the babies if the cow has another adult to cuddle with. otherwise, your preference. The baby may suck. They know by instinct where to get food. He may not also. I am bottle feeding 4 beef calves right now. One nurses only his mother (she doesn't have enough milk, I am supplementing) Two play musical nipples with which ever cow is nearby (both their mothers are dead) and one ignores her mother entirely and every other cow in favor of only me and the bottle. So it depends on the animal.

[Looking4ewes]

Thanks for your replies. The Jersey is kept close to the barn in the winter and has access to a large run-in shed. I'm asking about shelter for grazing in the warm months. The idea of using a lane for access to shed and water has me intrigued. If my EQIP money comes through, I can buy more e-fencing.

I put the Jersey in with the steers calves ydy to see what would happen. Surprisingly, the yearling steer was attempting to nurse, stealing off the back teats, while the 5 mo just stood around. I lost a couple cups of milk in the back end, but not much. I separated them last night for my convenience. Do you think the big one will start nursing? I swear, he is close to 700-800 lbs. and taller than the Jersey. Would you recommend anti-suck nose rings? I guess I could stake her out again this year, but she would be unattended much during the day.

[sammyd]

I've seen weaning rings on yearling heifers. Some are pains....