Do cows in good condition require bedding ?

[gopher]

In very cold weather, do cows that are in very good condition and have lots of protection from the wind still require straw bedding. These cows will not start calving until mid April.

[kato]

A lot depends on weather, and just how cold it is I would think. Are they on snow? Do they have waste hay to lay on? Personally, we bed our cows when it gets really cold. We feel the money spent on straw is saved on hay, as a warm comfortable cow will require less feed to keep warm. I do know, (from my job at a vet clinic) of cows who have suffered frozen teats due to lack of bedding. Bulls are especially prone to frost damage, and should always have bedding.

[dfarms11]

Well I always bed my cows probably more than they need, but a lot of it is waste from letting them eat a bale too. However, there is a farmer in our area who doesnt bed his cows all winter till calving. The thing you have to be carefull about is where they do sleep though. They need lots of windbreak and fresh snow. If they sleep in a new snowpack they are fine, its when they sleep in the same area that is sleeping in shit, is when things start to freeze. After all, thats all deer and moose get. Thats his thinking anyway.

[kaniteo]

Personal firewalls are basically software products that prevent intrusion to your computer when you are on-line. Your information can be compromised or your computer may become an unwitting pawn in DOS (Denial Of Service) attacks such as occurred last year with that little bugger in Montreal. DOS attacks send repeated messages to servers and in doing so overload the systems. The hackers use your computer to help send these messages. I don't this is a big issue for rural users, however (connections are too slow), but you may have compromise of other information on your machine such as financial data, e-mail address (useful for spamming the dickens out of you), etc. A firewall is a tool to prevent backdoor access to your machine when you are on-line. Some people say this is only an issue when connected to cable or ADSL but I've seen cases of unwarranted access happening with dial-up connections. You have to be careful when using a firewall that you don't prevent desired access such as collaborative Internet applications like NetMeeting or Firetalk. The software allows you to set permissions for these applications.

I use a free application called ZoneAlarm from www.zonelabs.com. Symantec and McAffee also have commercial firewall products. One neat feature of the Symantec product is that it will allow you to block all those pain in the but banner ads.

The one feature I would like to see in the firewall products is a mechanism that would fire a digital gernade back to the hackers' computers.

'nuff said

[jmillang]

The discussion has been on the same angle that a nutritionist would use. The function of bedding is to keep the cows dry and offer some insulation from the snow and or ground. By keeping the cows dry and warm you reduce the amount of energy the cow needs to maintain her body heat. If that energy is used for heat, less is available for fetus development, lactation, growth. The cows body is much like ours when it comes to heat retention, if you are dry and insulated you will stay warmer longer and use less energy.

The trade off is for the use of straw versus the extra energy needed. There is no simple answer.

[rockpile]

Thank-you Kaniteo,
Your info was very precise and very helpful. One question I have relates to what a friend of mine said, and that is that firewalls are very hard to properly install. Do you concur?
Rockpile

[kaniteo]

I think network firewalls can be tricky in that you are dealing with access requirements for a large number of people. Some of those people may wish to have very strict access rights and are only using the network for browsing the web and e-mail. Other people may need to communicate on an entirely different level, needing access for VOIP (voice over internet protocol) applications or even video-conferencing applications. The trick, therefore, is trying to balance the needs of a few with the needs of many.

Personal firewalls do not have those kinds of issues as you are usually only dealing with one user ( yourself ). Personal firewalls are fairly intuitive and will give you an opportunity to adjust your configurations on the fly or for a one time only situation. ZoneAlarm, for example, will ask you if you wish to give permissions to, say, NetMeeting the first time you use it. After you're finished with the NetMeeting session, you can go into the firewall program and make the permissions permanent. So, basically, configuration is setup as you go. Most of the firewall applications are good at explaining the fundamentals of personal protection as well.

Hope this helps

Happy New Year.
Ted

[cdmars]

I echo what Kaniteo has been said about Zonelabs firewall. Another site is at grc.com that has a test that will demonstrate the vulnerability of your system.

Both are freeware for personal use.