News

Managing cold stress in beef cattle

Cattle producers are taking extra steps to protect livestock from incoming bitter cold.

Kansas State University Extension beef specialist Sandy Johnson says having established wind breaks is crucial.

“Anything to cut the wind some is a major difference, and you know that yourself just being outside in the wind,” she says.

Johnson tells Brownfield beef cows with a dry winter coat begin to experience cold stress when temperatures fall below 32 degrees.

“For each degree below that, we need about 1% more energy in that diet to maintain her. So at 10 degrees, it would be about 22% more energy for that animal to maintain themselves,” she says.

She says using distillers’ grains provide the best outcomes for cattle.

“The type of energy in there is much more conducive to a high forage diet than trying to feed a high starch energy source, such as corn, to animals that are on a forage diet,” she says.

Johnson says it’s critical to keep fresh water from freezing and have adequate shelter and feed on hand during extreme conditions.