Snowy Days on the Farm

The last 2 weeks have been dominated by the weather. From preparations for snow, ice, and keeping water from becoming too frozen to drink from we are now combatting dangerously cold temperatures on our Indiana farm.

We get many questions about how our cattle can eat and be comfortable when the weather gets extreme, so here is a little behind the scenes of the cattle on one of the last days we had snow on the ground on Friday.

The cattle are coping well with lots of bedding and a little more feed. Cattle are very adaptable to cold weather. Their bodies bring circulation to the center of their body to keep warm in the cold.

My vet told me years ago that calves born in spring are always bigger because during the winter the blood circulates around the calf tighter. A calf born in the fall is smaller because the mother cow does the opposite in the summer to try to cool herself. Cows (and all animals) are just amazing how they have adapted over all these years. Though I've never understood why cows haven't evolved to have hands and more intelligence... I'll save that for another day!