After the Storm

[randiliana]

]We had a bit nicer day here today, than yesterday. Fortunately the temps stayed right around freezing so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Had 3 calves born during the storm, but kept about 8 in the barn for the night.

Here's some pictures from this morning.


We kicked about 40 pair out on Monday, before the storm hit. Just had too many in the newborn area and we were going to start running into sick calves or something was going to get stepped on. Since our other calf shelter is frozen into a snowbank, we had to make do with what we had...


We set a bale on end inside, so it wouldn't all just get wet and tramped into the ground


Worked great, the calves just crawl through and they are safe and clean and as dry as possible


This was almost all bare ground with a big water puddle down there. There was no ice either...


Feeding time


Babies don't look to much worse for the wear...All these calves are between a week and 3 weeks old...

[randiliana]

This one's about 6 weeks old

[francismilker]

Other than being a bit jealous of the moisture I would recieve from snowmelt, I'm really glad to be living this far south. That much snow this late in the year is bound to have an impact on one's hay supply.

[Tad]

Being in dairy we have calves all of the time, is it to hit a market date that people calve this time of year? There was a show on animal planet about beef outfits up in MT and they calved in march in snow and cold and crappy weather I figure there must be a reason to calve that early in such a northern climate. Got some nice stocky looking calves there too!

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by francismilker

Other than being a bit jealous of the moisture I would recieve from snowmelt, I'm really glad to be living this far south. That much snow this late in the year is bound to have an impact on one's hay supply.

Not really. I know around here you don't count on grazing until late April, and they are much further north.

[randiliana]

Francis, that will have a great impact on our hay, should mean that we get lots of it. We won't start greening up here til mid April. Even snow in May isn't unusual or a real big problem for us. Slows the farmers seeding efforts down but that is about it.

Tad, we are just over 1/2 done calving. There are several reasons to calve so early, bigger calves by sale time (Oct/Nov) is one. We also send our cattle out to pasture, some of our pastures are 2 hours away.

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by Tad

Being in dairy we have calves all of the time, is it to hit a market date that people calve this time of year? There was a show on animal planet about beef outfits up in MT and they calved in march in snow and cold and crappy weather I figure there must be a reason to calve that early in such a northern climate. Got some nice stocky looking calves there too!

Calving in snow is easier than calving in mud. Besides the added grass time, winter born calves are just healthier. You have to watch them very close when they calve, but they rarely have any trouble after that. Mud born calves tend to catch every bug that comes along.