Harsh weather adds to length, challenges for farmers caring for cattle

AURORA - The onset of serious winter weather this week adds three hours to the already lengthy work day of dairyman Chris Curtis.

'Nothing works right and everything takes longer when it gets below zero,” said Curtis, who milks 200 Holsteins three times a day on his farm southeast of this Buchanan County town.

Throw in half a foot of snow, as Mother Nature did this week, and its time-consuming removal makes life even harder for farmers, especially those specializing in labor-intensive husbandry of cattle.

Frigid weather presents few additional burdens for pork producers, whose animals live in climate-controlled buildings, or for grain specialists, whose winter labors are conducted primarily within heated offices and machine sheds.

But for farmers with cattle to care for, bitter winter weather extends both the length and difficulty - and sometimes the misery quotient - of their work day.

Iowans a couple of generations removed from the farm tend to think technological advances have relegated cold winter chores to their grandparents' memories. But that's not the case for beef and dairy producers, said Phil Reemtsma, president of the Iowa Cattlemen's Association.

'The vast majority of Iowa beef cattle spend most of their time outside in open sheds or foraging for waste grain in cornfields,” said Reemtsma, a DeWitt veterinarian who also raises and feeds cattle.

Cattle can take one day of extreme weather, but the cumulative effect of several days in a row can spell trouble unless their increasing food, water and bedding needs are met, Reemtsma said.

‘Old-fashioned cattle drive'

The colder it becomes, the harder it gets to meet those needs, said Steve Swenka, who raises purebred Angus on the family farm near Swisher.

In anticipation of this week's bitter weather, Swenka said he conducted 'an old-fashioned cattle drive” the week before to move his cows and calves from unprotected pastures to their winter shelter.

With wicked wind chills ratcheting up the difficulty of daily chores, 'just being out in it takes so much energy out of the human body,” he said.

'Water tanks and underground water lines start freezing, and you start thinking, ‘Maybe I should just be raising corn,'” he said.

With calving season approaching, Swenka said he hopes February and March will not be as severe as they were last winter, when the state's fourth-coldest February in 142 years guaranteed a short life for any calf born outdoors.

'We were checking cows round the clock so we could get them inside before they gave birth,” he said.

On subzero mornings, Curtis, the Aurora dairyman, said his day starts around 2:30 a.m. and ends around 5 p.m. - 'if everything goes right.”

Things least likely to go right when weather turns frigid, he said, include engines that won't start and water lines that won't run.

After he checks all the waterers and thaws those that have frozen, Curtis turns his attention to the two tractors and two skid loaders, all with enclosed cabs, that are essential in completing the day's primary chores.

When it's 20 below, as it was at times this week, 'you cross your fingers that everything will start,” and when they all do, 'you have a chance to have a good day,” he said.

‘It's a lot of work'

Once the machines are belching their highly visible exhaust, Curtis and two employees spend much of their day mixing and depositing in bunks the approximately 20 tons of feed his 200 dairy cows and 200 'outside” cattle, mostly dry cows and replacement heifers, will consume that day.

They also must refresh the cornstalk bedding in the sheds and barns that house his outside cattle and scrape and haul the previous day's mixed bedding and manure.

The cows whose milk pays the bills don't go outside. They eat and lounge in a comfortable freestall barn that they leave only for their thrice-daily milkings, routinely performed by employees, in an attached 20-stall parlor.

Curtis said feed consumption increases at least 10 percent during cold snaps while milk production falls at a similar rate. Bedding for the outdoor cows has to be changed daily to maintain the high degree of 'fluff” required to provide insulation, he said.

Calves, which are born year-round on his farm, have to be fed three times a day, rather than the normal twice, just to maintain a healthy energy level, Curtis said.

'My family and my cows mean the world to me. It's a lot of work, but it's the lifestyle I chose,” he said.

Before the advent of confinement facilities, pork production was subject to the same winter challenges as raising cattle, said Reemtsma, the DeWitt veterinarian.

'For the most part, bitter cold weather is more a nuisance than a hardship,” said Al Wulfekuhle of Quasqueton, who raises hogs at 13 sites.

'We burn a lot more LP (liquid propane) to maintain comfortable temperatures,” which range from 80 degrees for little pigs to the low 60s for market weight hogs, he said.

'They actually eat more, gain weight faster, and have fewer health problems in the winter,” he said.