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east of indianapolis | Well I know plenty of people will think I'm stupid but here we go. For the past 10 years I have had cattle as more of a pleasure thing and try to raise replacement or show calves. So this year I had the opertunity to rent more pasture at a fair price, so I did and bought a really nice set of 3 year olds out of Ok. The problem for me is barn space as in the past I have always had room for all my cows to get into the barn in the winter and have kept them bedded like we was going to the fair, but now way to many so my theory was if all cant get in none get in. So I poured al large pad of cement since I hate mud and built a nice wind break so cows are protected from 3 sides from weather (N, W, S) All has been well but we have gotten lots of rain and just feel bad for cows standing in cold ran and not under a roof. Will this hurt the performance of my cows and do I need to supplement them with high priced grain? In the past have only feed hay and always feed my worste hay first and work toward my better hay by the end, and doing that now also and have had very few clving problems, and have never liked feeding grain for fear of huge calves. I asked a buddy and he said the best thing he ever done was kick his cows out of barn but feel bad for them and have always told myself if I take great care of my cows they will return the favor and so far so good. I didn't grow up with livestock but took an interest in 4h and would hate to never have livestock now, I always laugh when I think of how dad was in winter with just grain he would not go outside some days because of weather and no reasson, but when you have livestock you get the pleasure of outside every day even if your sick or raining or really sh-tty weather lots of fun. Also I'm in central Indiana for location. Thanks for your expert advice and oh yeah I have baled stocks for bedding them but try to save them for cold snow weather. I'm going to let the calves go in barn through a creep gate because I start calving in Late January. Sorry so long just giving all details | |
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Expert advice on wintering cattle
