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Brad and Emily strike out on their own without supervision from Dr. Joe to discuss the brutal cold that hit MN and other areas of the country.
Hosted by members of the University of Minnesota Extension Beef and Dairy Teams, The Moos Room discusses relevant topics to help beef and dairy producers be more successful. The information is evidence-based and presented as an informal conversation between the hosts and guests.
[music]
[cows mooing]
Emily Krekelberg: Welcome everybody to The Moos Room. This week Joe is gone, so you have The Dream Team. It's myself and Bradley here today. Hey, Bradley.
Bradley Armstrong: Hey. There's not very often that you and I get to do it together without Joe.
Emily: I know. Well, he usually has to be here to babysit us.
Bradley: I know, exactly. He's the glue.
Emily: Yes. When the cat's away, that's what we'll do today here. The mice will play. Lots of things have been going on, and Bradley just made me aware. I missed it, too, but last week we hit another milestone in the podcast, our 150th episode. That's just wild to me. Thank you to everybody who listens and has helped us make it to 150. [chuckles]
Bradley: That's crazy that this is episode 151, and we're still going, and we still like each other. At least, I think we do. We're still having fun, so, hey, we'll keep going as long as everybody keeps listening to us.
Emily: Yes, absolutely. [laughs] All right, so episode 151, let's get it going here. We recently had horrible, horrible weather. Not just in Minnesota, all over the country, so talking that week before and during Christmas, it was really, really cold. It was really cold in Minnesota and many other places as well. I think in Rochester, where I'm located, the coldest we got with wind chill, so the feels like temperature. I think -36 was the coldest we were, and that is cold.
Bradley: We got you beat out here in Morris. We were at -46 with the wind.
Emily: Wowza. Whoo.
Bradley: That's cold. Way too cold.
Emily: Very, very cold. I think Bradley and I-- and well, and Joe too, but he's not here- we always get these questions of what do you do when it's that cold? I know friends that I have that maybe live in warmer parts of the country, like in the South, west coast, that kind of thing. They'll ask, "What do you do? How do cattle survive that?" Of course, we know cattle actually are designed to do a little better in colder temperatures. Of course, Bradley, you know this better than anybody since the cows at the dairy in Morris there are outwintered, so they are not kept in a barn all winter.
Can you maybe just talk a little bit about-- and I know we've talked about your out wintering before- but how does that look when, with wind chill, it feels like -46 degrees? Is there anything extra you do or just a couple things you might check a little more often? What does that look like for you, Bradley?
Bradley: Well, I probably worry about it more than what the cows do. When it's cold and snowy and windy, I certainly worry, and I hope that the cows are in the right spot and we did this and remember to do those things. For us, it's mostly keeping the cows and heifers out of the wind. That's probably number one is if you keep them out of the wind, they're going to do fine. The next one, it's a little more difficult when the wind is blowing, is to keep dry bedding. If you keep them dry, they're not going to have many issues at all. You got to feed them. You got to make sure that there's enough feed there.
It's really not too difficult. It's just a matter of you might have to feed them a little bit more, but they do well, and they thrive. We haven't had too many issues with animals during the cold. I was in the milking parlor the other morning taking some milk samples and noticed there was three, four cows that maybe had a little frostbite on them. It does happen, and we can put some lotion and zinc oxide on it to help with the frostbite. It's just usually the tip of the teat that's the problem. Sometimes that's really difficult because it could be wet bedding, or if we bed and then it snows, and then they lay down in the wrong spot where it's wet, they may get a little frostbite, but not very many calves with frostbite, but I did notice a few, and they're doing okay. They do milk out of it, and it will heal with time. Those are the things that I worry about.
Emily: I think that's an important point to bring up and I was actually going to ask about it before you even said it, and that's frostbite. With most cows, I always say they can do well in the winter when they've grown their winter coats and the cattle this year, had enough time to do that, but they don't grow winter coats on their udders. Yes, cows get hairy udders, but nothing like that big thick coat that they need. You have this area of a lot of exposed skin, and this can happen to dairy or beef cattle getting frostbite, there we go, that's the word. Frostbite on their udders.
Bradley, you brought up a few important points there with feed, and I think you mentioned water as well. I know that that's the biggest chore and probably the biggest pain in the butt. I have to give a quick shout-out to friend of the Moos Room, Jason Medows. He's the person who does the Ag State of Mind podcast. He has cattle down in Missouri, and it was very cold there as well. I know he said he had to be out multiple times a day, breaking up his waterers. Not everybody has heated waterers. I know I saw a lot of that on social media when it was really cold, too. People who are like, "I don't have a heated waterer, and I can't get one. What do I do, and how do I manage that?"
It's so crappy that in cold weather, the last thing you want to do is be outside extra, but you have to be, especially in those situations where you maybe don't have heated waterers, so you need to be bringing fresh water multiple times a day. Even just being out to put more feed out or push feed up extra times, all sorts of things that you need to do.
Bradley: Yes, you bring up a good point with the heated waters. Sometimes they're not all what they're cracked up to be.
Emily: [laughs]
Bradley: From experience, I was here the other day weaning some calves and noticed that one of the pens, the calves were belloring, so I go over to the water, and it's no water in it. It's like, "Well, what's going on?" It's a heated waterer, and it had froze up. The float had froze and it took me five hot water pails to get it unthawed and-
Emily: Wow.
Bradley: -a lot of work to chip away some ice and stuff. Sometimes the heated waters aren't good. When it is 40 below zero, it doesn't matter. Sometimes waterers freeze up, too so it's just checking those. Actually, I had talked to one of the workers and she said, "No, it was working fine earlier that morning," so get a little wind, and boom, the water freezes. We're doing more checks on animals just to make sure they have all those waterers, so it's not once a day that we're checking. It's a couple times a day when it's really cold to make sure that the waters are unfroze because unfreezing waters is not fun. I'll tell you, it was not fun the other day when I was out there unfreezing the waterer.
Emily: [laughs] I'm sure it wasn't the first place you wanted to be, Bradley.
Bradley: No, [chuckles] not at all.
Emily: You also bring up a great point on just increasing the frequency of observation that you have to do on your farm as well. That's checking waterers, even if they're heated, seeing how much feed you have, how the cows are doing. Just like we talk about with so many things, just spending a couple minutes watching the cows. Is there somebody that's maybe come up lame because something happened? Maybe you can get some eyes on a few udders and see if there's any signs of frostbite. Again, the last thing we want to do is be outside when it's cold, but we do need to be putting in just that little extra bit of management in order to make sure that things stay operating smoothly. I imagine, Bradley, it was hopefully, a little bit easier for you to have to thaw one frozen waterer that was maybe only frozen a few hours versus three of them that have been frozen overnight because no one checked them.
Bradley: I think one of the other things that we try to do here is to plan ahead. Sometimes that's almost impossible. If we know it's going to be bad and snowing and blowing and we're going to get shut in. We bedded calves a little bit extra the day before the storm and the cold because we knew there was going to be a blizzard here. We knew that. It's like "Well, let's bed them today so it's dry and they can stay warm so there's not any issues," because when they're out in the environment and it's cold and damp, then you start getting pneumonias and sickness and all kinds of other stuff.
I think some of it is trying to anticipate what might happen, plan for the worst, and hope for the best. We try to do a little extra maybe a few days beforehand just to make sure because we certainly don't want to be out there bedding when it's 40 below zero and it's a blizzard, and you can't see anything. I know it's not easy to say you should plan, but even just think about it a little bit might make people's lives a little bit easier. Then we don't have to worry so much when it's 40 below. We know that "Oh, yes. We bedded them yesterday, and they should be able to get through a day until we can come back tomorrow, and maybe have to rebed them again or something like that."
Emily: Yes, fresh bedding beforehand. I liked what you said, with the calves, they got a little extra bedding, too. With calves, we talk about their nesting score and how deep they can get into their bedding. I think that that's such an important thing that, in my mind, hopefully, would not take a lot of extra time. I don't know a single farmer that doesn't check the weather multiple times a day.
Bradley: Exactly.
Emily: You probably know if cold weather is heading in, and maybe you need to bump up bedding a day so you can get it done beforehand because you're so right, Bradley. I don't want to be up there when it's -40 doing bedding, and it's blowing everywhere, and I can't see. Just some of those little things that you can do to get yourself and your farm prepared, I think, are really important.
Bradley: One thing that I think about, too from when it gets cold and snowing and blizzards and we're in the middle of winter, it goes back to your specialty. What about mental health? What can we do during those times? People worry. There's just a lot of things in the winter, and so what are some things we can do when we think about from a mental health perspective to try and deal with all the things?
Emily: Yes. Winter is tough, and of course, people like to throw around labels like seasonal depression or seasonal effective disorder. It's called a few different things. That's very real. It is, and we know that. A big contributor to that is that there's less sunlight this time of year and sunlight provides us with vitamin D, which is a vitamin that helps our body release and take up serotonin. All these things work together. If you feel a little blah in the winter, that's totally normal. I cannot give you medical advice, but I would recommend talking to your doctor about potentially taking a vitamin D supplement over the counter. That kind of thing can help. Then also just still finding those moments where you can get a little joy even when it's cold.
I have a really specific memory of, yes, just a few days ago. It was maybe Christmas Day and I was loading up the car to leave my mom's. It was nighttime, and it was softly snowing. It was freezing outside, but I took like three seconds, and I just looked up at the sky. I could see the stars, and it was snowing, and I just took a deep breath in. It hurt my lungs a little bit, but it was just that moment of peace that I was like, "Wow, you only get this in the winter." Those calm, silent winter nights. There's just something very therapeutic about them for me personally. I think there's a ton of opportunities for us to just do things like that. Notice little things that just make you happy or give you joy.
I really like when that light, fluffy, sparkly snow falls. It's a pain to drive in, but it's just so pretty and I just enjoy that it looks nice. Those are some of the little things that I do. Of course, we have the new year coming up, and I think people tend to get hard on themselves this time of year with resolutions and what they could do and should do and want to do and need to do and all of that. I think that pressure really builds up with this time of year as well. I just remind people, you don't have to put all that pressure on yourself. Nobody tells you you have to make resolution. I don't make resolutions anymore.
One thing that I'm actually going to start doing that I got from a friend is they write down New Year's possibilities. Not resolutions, but things that are possible in 2023 that they'd maybe like to do. That can be something like take a long weekend trip somewhere I've never been. Things like that that just reduce that pressure and if you don't get to them, that's okay. If you do, that's even better. I feel like I always say the same thing on here when it comes to mental health, but it bears repeating that you need to do what works for you, give yourself some grace. Number one thing that I just can't talk about enough is talking, telling people how you are feeling.
I know it's something that even Bradley, me, you, and Joe have been really good at doing. We'll get on to record the podcast, and one of us might be like, "I'm just having a really bad day. I'm just really frustrated with this thing," and we maybe need to vent for five minutes. Then I know I always feel better. I think Bradley, you probably feel better after you've done that.
Bradley: Of course.
Emily: You can tell people when you're frustrated or stressed, and it's not that you need them to help you figure it out. Sometimes you just need someone to listen to what's going on. You just need someone that's going to say, "God, that sucks." Sometimes that is the most supportive thing you can say to someone. If they're having a rough time, just acknowledge that it's a rough time. "God, that really sucks. I'm sorry you're going through that." Those little things, they seem so simple and insignificant, but those are the things that really make the biggest impact I think.
Bradley: That's certainly great advice. To talk about that, I think we talked about vitamin D. Even the other day, Minnesotans made fun of this. We're outside, and it's 20 degrees out and the sun is shining. Actually, yesterday it felt really nice outside. Most people would go, "Oh my gosh, 20 degrees and it's sunny, and you think it's nice?" "Yes." "I was way too hot and had to take a jacket off." It does happen. For me, getting out in the vitamin D, it just makes things so much better, so much better.
Emily: Yes. Even when it's cold, I try to get outside every single day for at least 10 minutes. There is no replacement for fresh air and nature.
Bradley: I agree.
Emily: Yes. I would think most farmers agree. You get into farming by I think, partially because you like being outside, so yes. All right, Bradley. Do you have anything more for the good of the cause?
Bradley: I have no other good ideas today.
Emily: [chuckles] She's out of good ideas for the day, so must be time to wrap it up. We just had a quick episode for you here today, but again, just a reminder, when that weather is cold, really think about those increased observations you need to make. What little adjustments might need to be made as well. Also, we didn't even mention, keep yourself safe as well. If there are icy spots, making sure you're getting those managed so you can avoid slips, trips, and falls, and just the standard things. We talk about frostbit in cows. Frostbite also happens in people, so dress in layers and wear your warm gear.
My favorite cold weather tip that I think most people think I sound insane when I say it, but especially if you have exposed skin on your face, and it's like that -30 wind chill, if you put petroleum jelly on it, petroleum jelly has a lower freezing temperature, so it won't actually make like a crust on your face. It will stay moistened, but it provides a physical barrier on your skin. Like I said, I know smearing your face in petroleum jelly might sound crazy. It's something that I used to be a runner, so I ran year-round, including in the winter, and I would put Vaseline or petroleum jelly all over my face when I was running.
It feels a little weird, but it doesn't freeze. It's a physical barrier. You don't get frostbite or windburn or any of those other things. There's just lots of little things that you can do for yourself as well. When you're thinking about the little things you need to do for the cows, think about the little things you can do for yourself as well. Bradley, the dream team, we survived another episode unsupervised by Joe.
Bradley: Exactly.
Emily: Good for us. If you have any questions, comments, or scathing rebuttals about today's episode of The Moos Room, you can email us at theMoosRoom@umn.edu. That's T-H-E-M-O-O-S-R-O-O-M@umn.edu. You can also find us on Twitter @umnmoossroom and find Bradley on Instagram @umnwcrocdairy. You can visit our website, extension.umn.edu. Stay warm. Bye.
Bradley: Bye.
[music]
[cow mooing]
[00:19:33] [END OF AUDIO]
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