# Upper midwest blizzard



## jhm47 (Apr 14, 2018)

I live in South Dakota, and we have had an April 2 day blizzard, with up to 20" of snow, 40 - 60 mph winds, and in some places, ice on everything.  The loss of calves, lambs and other livestock has been terrible.  Personally, I've lost 4 calves since yesterday.  We happen to live in an area where there has been little to no snow, but the cold NE wind has caused the cows to "bunch up" in areas out of the wind.  These cows then call their calves, which tend to lie down near their mothers, and then are either trampled or laid on and killed.  Also, when a cow has a newborn in this wind, the little one tends to want to lie down and let the cow lick it off.  They don't get busy and find the teats like they normally do, and they often just give up.  They appear to be normal, but after a couple days, they starve to death.  Then, the cow (which has not been nursed) will often retain her placenta.  This is caused by the calf not nursing (when calves nurse, the cow will produce a hormone called oxytocin, which causes the cow to let down her milk, and also causes the uterus to contract).  Many complications from weather like this.  I used to calve in late Feb or early Mar, but quit that because of the unpredictable weather here.  Now, it's mid April, and this happens!  Next year, I'm calving in August, but I'll bet the weather will screw me then too!  Sorry about the rant!


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## promiseacres (Apr 14, 2018)

so sorry.


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## greybeard (Apr 14, 2018)

Dang..that sounds awful.
It's always something with cows, it seems..


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## Latestarter (Apr 15, 2018)

Sorry man... It has been one weird spring weather wise.


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## RollingAcres (Apr 16, 2018)

Oh man! So sorry to hear!


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## Wehner Homestead (Apr 16, 2018)

Yikes! The weather has cause all kinds of complications with Calving and breeding this year!


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## WildRoseBeef (Apr 16, 2018)

Here in Alberta there's an expected big April snow-storm coming in the next couple days, expected 6 to 10" of snow in some areas... and there's producers out there with already calved out cows, or are just starting to calve too... 

Talked to a farmer already today who's got a few inches of snow on the ground, and more coming in...


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## RollingAcres (Apr 16, 2018)

So far in upstate NY, Spring still can't make up it's mind yet, either to come go to not come. Just when we thought it's starting to warm up, then the temperature changed and now we have freezing rain.


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## WyndSyrin (Apr 18, 2018)

We got about 4 inches of Snow on Easter and the day after. We had to bring one calf in over night on easter and warm it up since it was only a day old and it was colder than a well-digger's arse. Sadly due to the same snow we lost a calf.


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## RollingAcres (Apr 19, 2018)

@WyndSyrin sorry you lost a calf too....


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## jhm47 (Apr 21, 2018)

We finally had a couple days of sunny weather with little wind.  The calves really needed that, and it's amazing how fast they can bounce back!  The next week or so is expected to be nice also, so maybe we have turned the corner into spring.  I'm hearing horror stories of cattlemen south of here who lost up to 100+ calves so far, and are finding more every day as the snow melts.  Losses like this are hard to overcome, even if you have 1000 or more cows like these guys have.  Hope they can hang on for better days ahead!


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## Baymule (Apr 21, 2018)

I am glad the sun came out for the sake of your and others calves. I am so sorry that you lost calves, it is hard to take a hit like that.


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## farmerjan (Apr 21, 2018)

We aren't in SD nor did we get a blizzard, but can commiserate with the cold/snow/freezing rain.  We got 6 inches about a week before, wind blowing and just muddy wet from freezing rain the day before.  It wasn't alot of rain, but in that cold wind it doesn't take alot of rain to get the animals chilled.  The snow on top of it just made the top of the ground a mucky mess.  We lost 3 calves in that, and it is very disheartening to see a cow trying to get her calf to get up.  
This past winter into "spring" has been as weird as it comes.

We got 3 plus inches last week and it was in the 30's.  We needed the rain, but colder than cold for the animals.  The winds here have been fierce, more than we get normally, for days on end.  And the cloudy chilly weather has slowed any grass growing to a crawl. It is drying out the surface of the ground fast. 

I am thankful though that we aren't going through what they are seeing in OK and CO with the fires.  The one had 300,000 acres burned, houses and barns lost, countless cattle dead, and it was only about 10% contained with miserable winds in the 40-60 mph gusts.  Very dangerous and unpredictable.


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## Wehner Homestead (Apr 21, 2018)

It’s been an extremely odd year for many things!


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