With last month's blizzard not even 30 days into the past, cattle operations in the Panhandle and eastern Wyoming are taking steps to get ready for another potential bomb cyclone. “When it comes to winter protection, a lot of it starts way out in advance,” Jack Arterburn, UNL Beef Systems Extension educator for the northern Panhandle said. “The first thing that I think about are shelter belts, but there are also artificial protection that people will put in like covered panels.” One example was excess rubber from tire stock tanks, which Arterburn said can be re-purposed into permanent or temporary windbreaks. “Anything that provides protection from the wind will help,” he said. “Cold and wet is bad enough, but you add wind to it and it really takes things downhill fast.” A wet hair coat raises the lower critical temperature at which cattle experience cold stress from a temperature of 19 degrees Fahrenheit to 59 degrees, according to a paper from UNL Beef Watch. A higher critical temperature means that cattle have to use more energy to maintain their body temperature and creates a situation where often the cattle just can’t eat enough to meet their energy requirements. As a result, they begin to use body fat reserves. And if those reserves become depleted, the animal will not be able to maintain body temperature and will die. With much of the ground still muddy, the added rain and snow will make dry bedding another important consideration, Arterburn said. “Giving cattle somewhere dry to lie down and trying to keep them from getting caked up with mud is the key,” he said. “Putting down some straw or some old hay just for bedding gives them a dry place to lie down and stay warm.” Calves that are more than a few weeks old are slightly more resilient than newborns, but the cold and the rain can be tough on them just the same. “I worry about the ones that are just a couple days or a week old,” Arterburn said. “The people who are calving right now, if they have a baby drop in the middle of the storm, you have to get them up, get them dry and get them to suck right away, otherwise you’ll have problems.” For cow/calf operations, flooding has covered creek and river bottoms where the first spring grasses typically emerge. The lingering mud also complicates feeding bales, making it harder on equipment in need of maintenance. “Things will take longer, and things will probably be breaking down if they haven’t already,” he said. “A lot of the times, with a storm like this people will feed extra, so it will take more time to accomplish that.” At Dinklage Feed Yards just east of Torrington, Wyoming, Operations Manager Rondel Carman said he and his crew are getting prepared. “We’re making sure we have plenty of supply of feed on hand — raw ingredients, hay and corn — stuff that we receive every day,” Carman said. “We typically go to what we call a storm ration, so we back off the energy of the ration a little bit and put some extra roughage in.” Cold weather disrupts the eating patterns of cattle. Animals exposed to severe cold also increases their body temperature and metabolic rate. Equipment-wise, loader tires are chained and dozer blades are equipped to tractors so that snow can be pushed and removed when needed. A bunk broom equipped to a tractor will ensure the feedbunks are clear of snow in order to feed hungry cattle. Carman said the yard has also ordered an extra tank of diesel fuel for back-up generators, so that in the event electricity goes out, they won’t be held up waiting on a fuel truck to arrive. The same goes for groceries and necessities needed on site to weather through the storm. With rain and snow comes the mud, which is another bit of added stress for cold and tired cattle. “It will affect condition, but it’s not as bad as one might think,” Carman said. “If you’re doing your job correctly and taking care of business like you should be, pens shouldn’t get into that bad of shape.” While the hope is that this storm will not be as severe as the forecast says, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure. Should producers experience livestock losses during the second spring blizzard, it’s important that producers document those losses for potential future applications under the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP). Notifications of loss need to be made with the Farm Service Agency within 30 days of the loss becoming apparent. Source - https://www.starherald.com