Cold weather

[whiteface]

It actually amazes me that these waterers would work at all in these temperatures. Having come from the "warm" Fraser Valley where a temperature of -5 with 2 cm of snow completely shuts the place down, I'm still marvelled by the creations that people have come up with to keep their houses warm, their waterers working and calves alive in what seems to me to be just ghastly temperatures.
I agree with you totally, grassfarmer, while we sure can't predict a chinook or -40 on any regular basis, what we do know for sure in Alberta is not to count on having grass or above freezing temperatures for something like 11 months out of the year.
There are definatly some advantages to calving in warmer weather, just none of which really work for me with this purebred operation, so I tough it out. The two waterers that aren't working are on one of those "continous flow" systems (bear with me, remember, being from B.C. originally, I may not have all the lingo down pat) but the kind where the water flows into the one and then goes back down on it's way to the next one. What irritates me is if the first waterer in the line has any kind of mechanical mishap as mine does, the perfectly good and well behaved waterer(s) down the line have no prayer of working because the flow is stopped at the first one. That bugs me to no end. And the waterers problems may not be able to be corrected until it gets warm again. So I may go the rest of the winter with four less pens to use. Huge problem for me. Haven't checked 'em yet this morning (afriad to!) but keeping fingers crossed. Hope the rest of you are all free-flowing this morning. You too Linda! Have a good day all!

[greybeard]

We calve in mid February. We have a cold barn with 7 pens which is about right for a 2 bull herd. It’s hell if the weather goes against you and I feel for anyone calving these days. Two years ago in a strech of bad weather we had over 20 calves in there an brought the mothers thru in shifts like a dairy barn. We use a 250,000 BTU construction heater to blow dry the calves. I like it better than a hot box as the calf and cow aren’t separated. The calf can get up to suck when it’s ready. Sometimes it seems if you miss that one chance, it seems to take a lot of work. They only suck when they want to. The blow dryer really warms those cold calves up quick. Make sure you don’t set it to close or I expect you could cook them.
I expect lots of us are going to be running on a year-round calving schedule. It’s probably cheaper to take those to a bred cow sale and take our lumps. Those calves make the group look poor.
My old uncle says the best time to calve is after the mud ,but before the flys. Im working toward that.

[cakadu]

WoolyBear - I think part of it has to do with the breed and part of it you have already stated. We feed their grain later in the day, generally around 4:30 - 5:00, primarily so that the major heat value from the grain comes in the middle of the night when they need the furnace stoked the most.

Now, I wouldn't want to state it to any kind of certainty, but that is about the only thing that we do that I can think of that would affect when they lamb. We know that the sheep don't lamb at night because when we had goats, we would have to get up for the goats and the sheep would never have a lamb in the overnight period. They sometimes lamb early in the morning - like 6 a.m. - but generally not at night. As a rule the lambs are out before evening, but with moving lambing to the end of April/May, that hasn't presented too much of a problem. Wish I could say we had some magic, but there isn't any that I can really think of.

Got the pipes partially working again - no hot water in the kitchen, so I may just have to forego some of the domestic chores until it starts up again. ;-)

Funny, I remember back as a kid, most of January and February were like this cold spell has been. It seems to me that we just kind of took it in stride, but then again when you're young, how much of the elements did one really feel? It is only as I age that I find this cold more difficult to take.

Talked with my Aussie girlfriend last week and told her that we were forecast to get this cold and she said that it was cold there at 18C!!!

Everything is relative isn't it? Now minus 10 will feel like the tropics.

[redcountry]

Yesterday jan 14 high of 12c fog in am. rained like hell most all afternoon
spent the day cleaning barns ( 4 barns 2 cows&calves 2 feeders)435 animals.
all animals are housed under roof from dec to may a few cows (8) left to calve from 04 will start the new crop march -may than again sept-nov.
80 spring 100 fall with a few off season sometimes when we buy bred cows

The new beef plant is now in production
the story in the "journal-pioneer"today said the had more employees starting this month, we are on the list but are still shipping to ont.
regards redcountry
keep warm

[whiteface]

That's a pretty long distance relationship Wooly, how long has it been going and do you two plan to live in the same country together eventually? None of my business of course but that just stuck out in my head as I read your thread. Good luck! Talk to y'all later, gotta go and pack some water, of course they're still frozen!
Have a good day all!

[whiteface]

Sorry Linda and WoolyBear, I'm reading faster than thinking and so looking for anything to think about other than my water problems. The rumors that will start now 'eh! Have a good day guys!

[cowman]

emerald: This whole watering out of the springs has been sort of a controversy around here. My son is doing the environmental farm plan thing and thinks we need to fence them out. The way I see it is my great grandfather watered them there and from the amount of buffalo skulls we've found there I guess the buffalo were at it long before any men got here. I personally don't see it as a problem. There is a huge dam right below these springs and although algae can be a problem if you don't take care of it, we've had trout in there for many years.
As you said I would need a pretty good waterer(or two) if I went away from watering at the springs. When we put in a new well and water system near the corrals we put in a line complete with large riser pipe. This was done because we realized sooner or later the "enviro police" would probably come knocking! I figure why change until they force us to, but my son gets in with these tree hugger government types and figures he should be pro-active! Myself I figure if some goofy government types want to change things then they should be paying for them, but of course that isn't how it works.

[cowman]

cowman, there are regulations in place regarding feeding sites adjacent to water courses,springs etc. This legislation came into effect January1/05. Your son's being involved in the Environmental Farm Plan is a very proactive move on his part. From the rumblings that I keep hearing banks will soon require environmental farm plans as a matter of course.
The Environmental Farm Plan is a good tool for producers to use to have a check and balance of their operating practices.
I don't see watering near a spring as nearly as large a problem as the operations that are still watering on the rivers. I have seen some photos of manure build up on the ice near watering holes and it is disgusting.