Keep your Winter Herd Comfortable
Winter is finally gripping most of the country in its cold grasp, which means it’s time to get serious about ensuring your cattle herd makes it through the winter comfortably. Whether you’re new to cattle or this is your 20th year on the range, we have a few tips that we believe will help you.
Watering is just as important
Even in the winter, with the abundance of snow and ice, having enough water at a decent temperature (we recommend 37 degrees Fahrenheit and up) is critical. Cattle can’t just eat snow and ice all day, as they have the same problem humans do when consuming that much frozen water – it lowers core body temperature.
Enough roughage
A great way to keep your herd warm is to ensure there’s enough roughage, in addition to whatever winter diet you have them on, to help warm them up. Hay is great because the digestion process of it causes more body heat, keeping your herd warm and lowering any heating costs you may incur if you’re housing your herd in a barn.
It also gives your herd more energy, meaning their meat stays firmer and healthier until slaughtering time.
Keep them dry
It’s also critical to keep your herd dry. Wet animals get cold as easily as wet humans, and if they stay wet and cold too long you can risk losing the animal.
In light of that, we recommend double-checking all housing structures to ensure there are no leaks, so your herd stays dry all winter long.
If you have any other questions regarding your herd’s winter health, call us today at [phone] for more information.