Ann,
For water, you might look into a 'frost-free nose pump'. Built in
Canada, we installed one 3 years ago and it has been great. The cows
water themselves through our Maine winter, the calves get by on snow
and milk (we calve in summer and wean in the barn during spring mud
season), although this year some of them have figured out the nose
pump. Now all I have to do is figure out how to stop feeding them.
Sumner
On Feb 25, 2008, at 1:46 PM, Ann Tiplady & John Sease wrote:
>
> We also are holding our breath until spring.
>
> The conundrum that has me baffled lately is how we can ever get out
> from
> under the expense of wintering the cattle (beef), so that we might
> take
> advantage of the grazing season. We've reduced our cow number (to
> a measly
> 6) thinking that we should stay very small until we seem to have a
> system
> that works. I'm just not seeing how this can work though. Our winter
> set-up is not at all what I would like, but the expense of building
> a barn,
> and furnishing it with bedding, seems absolutely crazy.
>
> Our own land isn't being used yet, and I've offers of other land to
> use.
> But how can I possibly keep all those animals through winter?
>
> I heard Greg Judy recently, advocating for no-hay whatsoever, and
> planning
> for grazing 365 days/year. Could it work here in Vermont?
> (Perhaps in a
> year when we don't have so much freezing rain?) I keep thinking about
> getting cows out to where they can winter in the trees, but there's
> still
> the feeding question (not to mention water out there).
>
> Perhaps smaller cows would help. If the cows are significantly
> smaller, is
> there significantly less mud? (Shorter time to finishing might
> lessen the
> winter feed costs by reducing head count for winter.)
>
> How do people make this work?
>
> Thanks, Ann Tiplady
>
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