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8 Posts
Hello again!
We made our big move and now reside in Western South Dakota instead of smelly city we were living in on the east coast, yay!
We're in planning mode for converting our home to a homestead and while cows are definitely a good 18 months away for us, we're working on research now.
We're in zone 4b, so super cold in the winters, though not consistently. One day it will be a high of -13 and the next day it will be in the 30's, but we get some serious extremes at 5700 feet. I've found lots of good information for over-wintering and shelter for herds of cows (10-15+), but I can't see us every having more than 3 at any given time realistically. Does that change our shelter requirements? The importance of ventilation has been drilled into me, but I'm wondering if our smaller number of cows would mean they don't share nearly as much heat as a larger herd, meaning I need to have a more enclosed space or (hopefully not) a heat source in the barn.
Anyone doing anything similar or have any advice? Oh, one other thing, we're really arid and dry, so wet winters are awfully rare....damp is rarely a problem
Thanks v much!
We made our big move and now reside in Western South Dakota instead of smelly city we were living in on the east coast, yay!
We're in planning mode for converting our home to a homestead and while cows are definitely a good 18 months away for us, we're working on research now.
We're in zone 4b, so super cold in the winters, though not consistently. One day it will be a high of -13 and the next day it will be in the 30's, but we get some serious extremes at 5700 feet. I've found lots of good information for over-wintering and shelter for herds of cows (10-15+), but I can't see us every having more than 3 at any given time realistically. Does that change our shelter requirements? The importance of ventilation has been drilled into me, but I'm wondering if our smaller number of cows would mean they don't share nearly as much heat as a larger herd, meaning I need to have a more enclosed space or (hopefully not) a heat source in the barn.
Anyone doing anything similar or have any advice? Oh, one other thing, we're really arid and dry, so wet winters are awfully rare....damp is rarely a problem
Thanks v much!
