It’s Cold

What do you do when a blizzard blows in?

Well, we could - and sometimes do - move paddock fences and graze right through snow events. Cows will nose through many inches of snow to find the good grass; they may even graze more efficiently because they can’t see the grass, so they are less choosy about what they eat. Paddocks get bigger as temperatures drop; it takes a lot of energy to keep those big bodies warm.

On the other hand, there’s no necessity of doing everything the hard way, and if you’ve budgeted some hay for the winter, a blizzard might be just the time to use it. So thought we, when the forecast convinced us a big storm was coming. Uncertain how long it would be before the roads were plowed, and not sure how we’d feel about the three-mile round-trip walk to move fence on Sunday morning, we threw a loop of fence around two round bales and ran the cows up behind the Sisters’ machine shed. If felt really good to sleep in, knowing all the cows were out of the wind, with full stomachs. By the time we went up to check on them, the township had made some effort to clear the road, but no one was out, and we had a nice walk.