Upper midwest blizzard

[jhm47]

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!

 

[Baymule]

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.

 

[farmerjan]

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.

 

[Wehner Homestead]

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