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Extra livestock protection called for
Livestock producers are working to protect their animals in this difficult spell of frigid weather across much of the nation. Heather Gessner, an Extension Educator in McCook County, South Dakota, says cattle producers have to take a number of important steps, “One of the biggest things, I think, producers need to look at is trying to block the wind. Whether it’s putting those livestock behind a shelter belt or if they can build a pile someplace with hay bales, just somehow to get them out of the wind so that we can take some of that pressure and some of the cold factor away.”
Access to water is always a top priority and Gessner says so is enough food for energy,“”Low body weight condition scores on those pregnant mama cows come calvin’ time is not going to be a good deal.”
Gessen says cattle are using most of their energy to stay warm right now and if they don’t have it fed to them their bodies will start to take it out of their fat supplies.
[She says producers remember a lot of lean cattle coming out of the blizzard of 1996 and ’97 in South Dakota and want to avoid that outcome.
Tom Steever interviews Heather Gessner, Extension Educator, McCook County, South Dakota
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