Generating Heat

It gets to be cold here, the kind of cold that freezes your eyelashes together and you put your ice cube trays on your front porch to make ice. The kind of cold that really hurts your face and shrivels the inside of your nose. Those days are when I feel like bringing all the creatures in the house.


Now I know that would be the worst thing for them. Yet the unrelenting bitter cold for days on end makes me wish I had a magic wand.

The only thing to do is make them comfortable and be prepared. First defense is to provide shelter from the elements. We do not close them in but allow them to choose to remove themselves from the elements. They then can decide to move around to warm themselves, to huddle up together or standing in the rising sun and eat.

I have mentioned before that some of our horses will wear blankets. Some do not. I have a very strong opinion on blanketing.  My opinion is that each horse's health, age, weight and mobility will determine what is best for them. A horse who is not sound, cannot move around as much without stiffness to improve blood circulation. A horse who is very thin or had poor muscle stores also does not need further caloric energy going to shivering. Ones who have a very fine hair coat or are prone to rain rot or fungal skin infection does not need to have a layer of ice on their backs.

We have a blanket for each horse on the property, and can use them for emergency. If it is 15 below and that horse is needing veterinary care, they have to get in a trailer and ride an hour to town. Horses, too go into shock and need to be kept warm. So we have blankets, a lot of blankets. The number one thing we do to keep them warm is to provide as much forage as possible. The horses digestion is their oven. While they are eating they are keeping warm. Grains don't do the same work. Forage is a beautiful thing.  Warm water is essential to them to ensure that forage is moving its way through the body.

Water is so important in cold weather, and asking them to drink ice water seems like asking for trouble. The last thing I ever want to do, is deal with colic in extreme cold so I will do what I can to prevent it. The frosty, happy hay covered faces greeting me from their round bale is a wonderful thing in the morning.

The goats shelter together, they will sleep in family units cuddled right together. It also makes me happy to see that the breeding of Cashmere bloodlines gives them a natural heavy down to their coats allowing them more natural insulation. Heated water is just as important to them to encourage them to keep drinking. They too get as much forage as possible to keep their little bodies warm.

Cows too are on the same program but given big areas of bedding to bunk down in. We cut our swamp hay for that purpose and they seem to choose to sleep in it happily. Ginny our lovely big cow has occasionally chosen to push through her fence to hang out with her goat friends next door. The goats love her visits and all seem to want to eat under her. She would be like a giant furnace.

There are so many ways to keep critters happy and healthy in the winter and I am thankful for the progress of things like slow feed hay nets and water heating systems.

The other main thing we always ensure is free of snow, is the stock trailer. This is our emergency trailer. Digging it out is always important, and keeping it where we can hook up at a moments notice is not always easy especially after a huge dump of snow, but you greatly appreciate you have done it when you need it.

Go forth and stay warm my fellow farmers!