I was asked the other day what we were doing to prepare for the cold snap coming in this week.

Animals must be able to stay dry and out of the wind.

To assist with keeping them dry, we make sure they have fresh bedding underneath of them and enough walls and roofing to prevent sideways rain or drifting snow from reaching them.

Ruminants generate heat by digesting their food, so access to hay increases their ability to produce heat. Increasing energy with a little bit of grain is good, but grain by itself doesn't increase rumen activity as much as long stems do. We often will top off pens with an additional round bale if they are getting close to the end of one so that even if the tractor doesn't start or the mud is too sticky and wet to drive through it or who knows what else happens, the animals will not be in danger of getting low or running out of hay to help them keep warm. 

There are ways to keep water from freezing using geothermal energy, but our area doesn't get and stay cold enough for us to put the time into that project. We do empty waterers for birds because freezing can crack those. We prefer to leave some water in some low rubberized container in poultry enclosures though because we've been frozen out due to ice storms a time or two. 

Our frost free hydrants have never frozen, but the water hoses sure have, despite carefully emptying them to help minimize that. Sometimes we've been unable to attach or detach (yes, we've forgotten to remove them or had them freeze tight before we could get them loose) the hoses or other issues that have led to us not being able to use the frost free hydrants.. We have had water troughs frozen with such a thick layer of ice that we couldn't break it with a sledgehammer, so we try to have enough room on top of the frozen water in the trough to add hot water from the house morning, noon and evening or as often as we can. Salt water in a bottle doesn't prevent the trough from freezing, but it does give them a hole to drink from if they figure out how to push it down and drink around it until the ice freezes too thick for that. When the frost free hydrants fail to function, then we get to haul hot water from the house. We use hot water because every animal is hundreds of feet from the house, so by the time we get it to them it's not hot. Warm water is pleasant for cold animals to drink, so we can get them to drink more if the water is warm. We do have electric water buckets that will keep water above freezing, but they do require electricity and sometimes that goes down. We also don't have enough to provide water to all of our animals in such small buckets. We usually use them for lactating does that are being kept inside the barn where we have more control over their environment.

Knowing what animals need and being prepared ahead of time helps cold weather events go smoothly, but it doesn't change the fact that extreme weather conditions for an area creates more work.

Stay warm and safe out there everyone!