Cold snap and cattle

Hi, I'm in the north Texas area, and looking into the cold snap we are getting at the end of this coming week. Thursday and Friday the lows will be around 10°F but wind chill will be around -5°F. I have cattle that are out with out a lot of wind shelter. Would that warrant opening the barn, or will they be okay for a few days of that? How cold can these guys get?

Cattle are pretty tough, especially if they have time to acclimatize to cold weather.

Wind cover is important, though. So is decent bedding. Personally, I would open the barn.

I would open the barn….or provide some other shelter. Given your location, I assume your cattle are used to much warmer weather.  What numbers of cattle are you talk8ng about?

The kind of weather we have here in Texas doesn't allow cattle or other animals to get adjusted to colder weather.

We have 50' degree days then where I am it is going to get down to 6' degrees.

Our deer survived the winter storm of Dec 2020 through a lot of exotic animals died.

Let the cows get into the barn.

All right, will make the arrangements for the barn. I'm keeping a lot of stuff on the main floor, do will have to move everything to the top. But I think it's wise at this point. Thanks everyone for your advice!

Best of luck! All we have at the moment is two youngish calves. They shall be in the barn and closed up in there.

It is only supposed to get down to 12F (actual) here in Chesapeake, VA allegedly (but windy too). Sadly, it is usually about 5F colder than what they report/predict on my property. I have multiple thermometers to confirm as well. lol

I am supposed to be in zone 8A allegedly. I am thinking they should bump that down this year.

I am concerned about my 1st year citrus!!!

Depending upon the number of cattle you are talking about and your resources, you may want to consider building a simple 3 sided shelter for them.  I put one in each paddock for my goats and pigs.  I build them out of what I have on hand … normally that is pallets and old metal roofing. No, they don’t win awards for looks, but if especially bad weather rolls in, they have a place to go.

John F Dean wrote:Depending upon the number of cattle you are talking about and your resources, you may want to consider building a simple 3 sided shelter for them.  I put one in each paddock for my goats and pigs.  I build them out of what I have on hand … normally that is pallets and old metal roofing. No, they don’t win awards for looks, but if especially bad weather rolls in, they have a place to go.

I am planning on eventually doing the same thing up on the dry/sacrifice lot. It will have to be large enough to store some hay and hold 2 horses plus cattle. I want walls at least on the North and West sides... and for it to be tall enough to fit the tractor under.

Then to run at least 15A of power (for a water de-icer and light) and a frost-free spigot out there to it.

Life will be easier for us and the animals both. It will just be a series of projects. First comes the fence I have to build for the dry lot. lol

What are they drinking?  In Texas water is usually a priority for stock owners, but we usually don't build or plan for this sort of cold.  A stonck pond or tank will ice up quickly.  Without water in the cold they will fare worse than in the heat without water.  Be prepared to break ice several times a day, if you don't have a water source that won't freeze,

Good question, Jack.

I was just outside with the dog and notice that the water pan was a block of ice even though it has gone from 6 F to 37 F.

The problem will be the water hose in a trough setup. A cheap aquarium submersible heater will keep the tank itself from freezing. Hoses freeze super easy unless heated ($$$$) or insulated extremely well. For short periods of cold like we get here I would manually fill the trough and then disconnect the hose.

I’m assuming you want to use an “auto fill” water float (name?). If filling manually disregard the hose part.

I know the aquarium heater will work my son has a fish tank on the back porch in a trough. It stayed at around 45-50 degrees through this cold. I think I paid 20$. It is not rated for a tank that size. The fish aren’t tropical so it just needs to be reasonable temp not 70+ degrees.

Well, everyone, we're all safe here! We started thawing out yesterday and the barn worked well. Hay, feed, and water all in there. The water froze a bit but they still had some to drink. Huge difference between being out in the wind and the wind break of the barn. Thank you everyone for your good advice! Even if the weather wasn't deadly, it can really make an animal sick to be out that long in temps like that.

Their winter hardiness also depends on the breed of cattle.  Glad you went ahead and made arrangements for them in the barn.  Better safe than sorry.  

Faye Streiff wrote:Their winter hardiness also depends on the breed of cattle.  Glad you went ahead and made arrangements for them in the barn.  Better safe than sorry.  

I've got Devon- pretty damn hardy, but I wanted to watch out for them.