Episode 28: Winter Care of Livestock with Dr. Pereira and Dr. Knight

On this episode of the Maine Farmcast, co-hosts Dr. Glenda Pereira, Assistant Extension Professor and State Dairy Specialist and Dr. Colt W. Knight, Associate Extension Professor, State Livestock Specialist for the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, have a conversation about winter care considerations for livestock.

Episode Resources

• Feeding Cows in Winter – Factsheet from Iowa State 
• Cold Weather Tips for Livestock Farmers – UMaine Extension 
• Maine Farmcast Episode 01: Ventilation with Dr. Morgan Hayes
• Winter Watering Tips for Swine

Automated Transcript

Colt Knight: 00:19

Welcome to the Maine Farmcast. I am one of your hosts, Dr. Colt Knight, associate extension professor at the University of Maine, and I am joined by my co-host, Dr. Glenda Pereira the state dairy specialist. And today, we’re gonna talk about winter care of livestock as it pertains to their health, their environment, and?

Glenda Pereira: 00:45

Their feed, nutrition, all the things. So when Colt and I sat down to think about what episodes we were gonna record, we thought that this one would be important to release right now, as folks, start, you you know, going into the winter and, working in more extreme conditions. So you already heard Colt talk about, water considerations, and that was, an episode that was released in October. So for the folks who want a more elaborate, learning, opportunity, about watering systems, which are really crucial during the winter, refer back to that episode that, Colt and I had. But so the first thing when we were, brainstorming what we wanna talk about today, we talked about animal health.

Colt Knight: 01:39

The first step in animal health is to make sure that they are in the proper condition. And there’s a lot of ways to assess proper condition of an animal, but the easiest and cheapest is body condition scoring. It doesn’t cost us anything to go out and visually or physically appraise those animals. Yeah. You know, if we got beef cattle, horses, pigs, dairy cattle.

Glenda Pereira: 02:09

Goat, sheep. Yeah.

Colt Knight: 02:10

All really easy to appraise visually. Now sheep and some goats, it’s more difficult to get body condition score visually because they’ve got that thick wool coat or thick mohair coat. And so sometimes you have to palpate those animals. But still, easy and free. Yes.

Colt Knight: 02:29

And we write that body we we did that body condition score on all of our animals. We write it down, and then we check every couple weeks. And then we can see if the body condition score is going up, maintaining at the same level, or if it’s decreasing. And the good thing about doing this on a frequent basis is you can just take the average of all your animals, and you can look at your average herd score whether it’s going up, down, maintaining. And if it’s going down, we know something is wrong.

Glenda Pereira: 03:00

Right.

Colt Knight: 03:00

Whether it’s nutrition, internal parasites, health issues. Something’s going on. Right? And if it’s wintertime, it might even be access to water issues. Maybe those water tanks are freezing because we know that water is positively correlated with feed intake.

Glenda Pereira: 03:17

Yep. It’s really important.

Colt Knight: 03:19

And so a body condition score will tell us when that’s starting to make a dip. And if we get those average scores on a regular basis, we can usually figure out that something’s wrong before we have a crash.

Glenda Pereira: 03:32

Yes.

Colt Knight: 03:33

Right? Yeah. And if we inter intervene before we have the crash, then we don’t have any issues. It’s just we’re just taking a simple corrective measure.

Glenda Pereira: 03:43

Yeah.

Colt Knight: 03:44

Whereas if we wait till everybody gets sick or skinny and not reproducing or whatnot, you know, then we have a a real issue.

Glenda Pereira: 03:52

Yeah. And so I always urge farmers to think about, well, where are your animals now? And we wanna make sure that whatever we’re feeding them, including water, whatever their environment is, that it’s helping them to maintain this weight or this condition over the next couple of sick right? 4 to 6 months.

Colt Knight: 04:13

So Some of our animals that are living outside, we might need them to gain conditions before winter because we know they’re gonna lose a body condition score throughout the winter.

Glenda Pereira: 04:23

Yeah. Exactly. And and then, obviously, this is generalizing because if your animal’s gestating, if your animal’s lactating, they have different energy requirements, and so we need to be mindful of that. So if your animal’s gestating or lactating, we need to be more specific. But in general, you you know, you wanna make sure that they’re just maintaining the current weight that they have now.

Glenda Pereira: 04:47

I do I will reference back to, an Iowa State publication that kind of gives us the general guidelines and nutrient requirements for, cows. But on average, cows, you need to have, you know, anywhere from 2.5 to 4% of their body weight, come from feed, and that’s obviously just, you know, to to maintain all of their, dietary needs. So for example, if there’s a 1,300 pound cow, she’s gonna need protein and energy. And so, this is I’m gonna reference it back to this, and I’m gonna attach this for folks who may be wondering where their animals fall. But they need roughly 1.8 pounds of crude protein and then 12.5 pounds of, total vegetable nutrients or energy per day.

Glenda Pereira: 05:34

And so this can be obviously in the form of hay. So hay and, obviously, if you’re supplementing with corn, grain or a grain mix, that’s gonna include your vitamins and minerals as well. So that’s just, you know, your basic needs, energy and protein. And like Colt mentioned, some animals may be needing to put on weight, and especially our growing animals, they’re gonna need more protein. So if you’re feeding a protein, you you know, grain mix that, is for a different stage of life, than the animals you currently have, like for calves, it’s important that you feed them more protein because they’re doing more growing versus other stages of life for animals.

Colt Knight: 06:18

As a generality, as animals get older, their protein requirements go down Yep. With the exception of lactation. Yep. That’s that’s really critical. So usually when the the animals start producing milk and they’re they’re lactating and they’re that number usually goes up like a growing animal as well.

Glenda Pereira: 06:38

Right.

Colt Knight: 06:38

But, you know, your dairy cattle are more complicated than some of our other livestock species nutritionally because we are managing that milk production like crazy. Yep. You know, with our mature beef cattle, they don’t need a lot of protein. Yeah. You know, as long as I get 7, 8% crude protein in their diet, they’re fine.

Colt Knight: 06:59

They can maintain you know, those those wonderful rumen bugs can maintain. No problem.

Glenda Pereira: 07:05

Yeah. They’ll be happy.

Colt Knight: 07:06

Our pigs and chickens and horses, on the other hand, you know, we have to we have to maintain a nice steady diet Yep. For those.

Glenda Pereira: 07:15

Yeah. And then additionally, obviously, in in the same vein as nutrition and body condition score, for example, our calves that are growing, they might experience cold stress. Mhmm.

Glenda Pereira: 07:28

So we need to make sure that we are providing an environment that minimizes cold stress for them. For folks who have dairy animals or you’ve seen dairy animals out and about, you they have calf jackets. And so we utilize those because calves, they’re not able to thermoregulate their body yet, so they need an insulation, layer. That’s why you may see calves, with a a a jacket. And kind of like we talked about, previously in your episode, ventilation is important.

Glenda Pereira: 08:00

So being outside is actually a really good way to actually, minimize your health events as long as you have the proper insulation, as long as you’re meeting their energy needs.

Colt Knight: 08:12

Mhmm. A barn with a small dry lot can really compound health issues if it’s not properly maintained. So those animals need a clean, dry environment that is well ventilated. Yep. And as we said in our previous episode, sometimes folks misconstrue human comfort with animal comfort.

Colt Knight: 08:38

Those livestock would much rather have a well ventilated barn than they would one that’s closed up all the way. You know? We’re not trapping heat like we think we are. We’re actually trapping moisture.

Glenda Pereira: 08:50

Right.

Colt Knight: 08:50

And that moisture increases the humidity, and therefore, makes it more cold than we think it is. But also that humidity lets microbes grow, and we can have a lot of pathogens start to reproduce. And let’s face it. Most of us don’t get to clean our barn

Glenda Pereira: 09:07

During the wintertime.

Colt Knight: 09:08

During the wintertime. And so those pathogens can just stack on top of each other. And maybe we don’t see the health issues in the wintertime from those those pathogens. But when we clean that barn out in the spring, we’re gonna stir all that stuff up and release it. I see that with sheep a lot more than I do other livestock.

Glenda Pereira: 09:26

Right.

Colt Knight: 09:26

But that’s a real concern, is spreading those pathogens around if they’d set all winter or fall.

Glenda Pereira: 09:34

Yeah. There are some worms where they actually, kind of like bears. They hibernate.

Colt Knight: 09:40

Yes.

Glenda Pereira: 09:40

And then they become, reactive in a sense, during the springtime when we release our animals back to pastures. So, there’s lots of fun, parasites and pathogens that can cause a lot of issues if we’re not managing the bedding.

Colt Knight: 09:57

Winter where it didn’t freeze. Right. Internal parasites were a nightmare to manage. With all the mud and the wet weather, they never actually died off or they never actually hibernated. Same thing with tick ticks.

Colt Knight: 10:10

Yep. Right? If we don’t have that really cold winter, those ticks don’t actually hibernate. They just stay active. And and we’ve got all those issues.

Colt Knight: 10:19

Ticks are generally not too much of a problem on our cattle in the northern environment, but they can really put a hurting on on some of our poultry and swine friends.

Glenda Pereira: 10:29

Yeah. Yep. They’re great vectors of disease too, which is we won’t go down that path here on this episode, but, again, just trying to minimize, all of those things by keeping clean, environment in relative to the environment as well. So we wanna make sure that the animals have a three sided structure that can minimize the wind chill or any, gusty winds that we have. So, we we can use trees, as a windbreak, but if possible, having a pole barn or something that’s gonna, you you know, insulate them.

Colt Knight: 11:07

Maine has a three sided structure law, and that’s just an animal welfare law concern there. But, you know, ideally, we build our structures in such a way that they’re well ventilated, that it can keep the wind, rain away, and they still have a dry environment to get in and out of. That’s that’s the ideal situation. And and another ideal situation would be to minimize any mud concerns because they go outside, they get wet, muddy, and they bring that back in.

Glenda Pereira: 11:42

Right.

Colt Knight: 11:42

And when that mud dries, it creates dust, and that that dust can cause respiratory issues.

Glenda Pereira: 11:49

Yeah. I know some folks, in Maine have actually benefited from a heavy, use area, so building one. And I know that NRCS, has some cost share projects with that, but it can really help so to to minimize that muddy area that Cole was talking about because they do track that back and forth. So that might mean that where they’re feeding, you have that heavy use area because they’re feeding maybe outside and that’s not in the barn. And so you’re trying to minimize that, as best as possible so they, in addition to that, have access to feed and water.

Glenda Pereira: 12:22

So when we’re thinking about the the use areas of our animals, especially in the winter, because like you said, we might not be able to clean that out. It might stay muddy the entire time, so we wanna minimize that.

Colt Knight: 12:33

And some animals are just destructive. Right? So if you have a whole bunch of cows in one area or pigs, Pigs might not have the hoof action destruction that cattle do, but they root and they tear up that ground. There’s just no way to keep it from being mud in the spring and the fall. Yeah.

Colt Knight: 12:51

And those heavy use areas, you know, have concrete pads or or really well drained gravel. Yeah. And it prevents that mud from from forming. Or if it does form on top, you can easily scrape it off the roof tracker.

Glenda Pereira: 13:05

Yeah. So, staying on the topic of housing for chickens, it’s important that we have, a proper roosting, management. Right?

Colt Knight: 13:18

Yeah. Chickens are really prone to frostbite, especially, if they live in an uninsulated coop. You know, chickens don’t have to have an insulated coop or a heated coop if we choose winter tolerant breeds of chickens. But the way that they keep their feet warm is they ruffle their down feathers up over their feet. So when they’re sleeping at night, if they have a perch that’s a really narrow diameter you know, most folks like to think, if you take your fist and you would were to wrap it around like a a dowel rod or something, you would think that it would be more comfortable for the chickens to have, like, an inch or 2 inch wide round perch.

Colt Knight: 14:01

But, realistically, what that does is when they wrap their toes around it, the bottom of their toes are wrapped around and they’re sticking out on the bottom. And then when they ruffle their feathers around, those toes don’t get covered, and so we end up seeing frostbite on toes if they don’t have the proper perch. And so one of the ways to think about this, if we take a 2 by 4 and we lay it flat, they can put their whole foot on top of that 2 by 4, wrap their feathers around it, and you won’t have any feet frostbite issues with that nice round perch. If you’ve got like a like a cedar tree or a natural log you wanna use, 3 or 4 inch diameter minimum on that. I would say lean towards the 4 inch more than the 3 inch, and that will prevent them from getting the frostbite.

Colt Knight: 14:50

Now the other thing that they get frostbite is on their comb. Right? And so a lot of our winter tolerant breeds don’t have a big decorative comb so that it doesn’t get frostbite as easy. And the way to prevent that is to keep the wind out of that structure.

Glenda Pereira: 15:07

Yeah. Yeah. No. No wind can certainly be, an issue as well as rain. So

Colt Knight: 15:14

And and the moisture issue. That that goes back to the ventilation and the bedding. Yep. Right? We gotta have a clean, dry environment that’s well ventilated because that extra moisture in the air will cause frostbite.

Glenda Pereira: 15:26

Yep. Yeah. So, when we’re thinking about rain and wind and snow, so snow actually is a really good insulator. So if you see cows out in snow, I mean, they’re not cold, it’s because it creates a really nice pad and it insulates them, whereas rain doesn’t have the same effect. So if it you know, it’s okay to leave animals outdoors if it’s snowing.

Glenda Pereira: 15:53

And they won’t, freeze. But when we’re thinking about rain, it’s important that they have that structure because, rain doesn’t act as an insulator. So if especially if it’s windy, the the combination of wind and that cold rain, will require your animals, to have to need actually more energy, to to maintain, their body and and thermoregulate be because of how cold they’re gonna be. And the

Colt Knight: 16:23

same is true for mud. If they’re standing in knee deep mud, they might as well be standing in the rain. Right. Because they’re getting just as wet from mud as they would be. And and the mud is gonna draw heat from the animal.

Colt Knight: 16:38

It’s it’s like a conductor. So if there’s a lot of mud, we actually or if there’s if it’s wet or there’s a lot of mud, we actually have to increase those energy requirements for that animal, so that it can stay warm throughout there.

Glenda Pereira: 16:54

Yeah. So I think we covered a lot, on this episode for folks to think about. Was there anything else that we didn’t mention? Betting. Yes.

Colt Knight: 17:03

Betting is crucial. And there’s a lot of options for bedding. Right? Especially since we live here in Maine, there’s a lot of sawmills available, so we can get fresh sawdust, which still has a lot of moisture in it, because that wood was cut green and it wasn’t dried. So that’s a less desirable option.

Colt Knight: 17:24

Also those those type of sawdust that’s not dried can contain parasites, like mites or other bugs that can live in there. So the kiln dried sawdust is is best. And kiln dried shavings, which are larger particles than sawdust, are ideal. The kiln dried kills anything that might live in there, so it kills any disease pathogens, any parasites. But being super dry, it also absorbs more moisture, and it’s not gonna put moisture into the air.

Colt Knight: 17:57

And but how do we keep those that bedding clean throughout the winter? Right?

Glenda Pereira: 18:03

Yep.

Colt Knight: 18:04

My favorite is the compost bedded pack.

Glenda Pereira: 18:06

Right.

Colt Knight: 18:08

You know, most people, I think, would would just use a regular pack where they just add more and more, and it just piles up over the time. But if you actually stir that up a couple times a week or once a week,

Glenda Pereira: 18:19

that’s better. Yeah. For some, so if so if you have animals that like like, for example, for lactating animals, you wanna be mindful of the fact that there’s so much urine in manure. So you’ll do that twice per day to,

Colt Knight: 18:35

And with our like our chickens, you don’t have to do it once a week.

Glenda Pereira: 18:38

Yep. Yep.

Colt Knight: 18:39

Yeah. But you’re you’re stirring it up so that the microbes can actually compost the bedding. And a couple benefits of that, 1, it keeps it clean. There’s no smell. 2, the action from the microbes actually generates some heat.

Colt Knight: 18:56

Yep. So you’re actually heating the barn from the ground up. And 3, we don’t have to remove the bedding. We can leave it in there on most of our species for 6 months. Yep.

Colt Knight: 19:07

So So you only have to clean the barn out once

Glenda Pereira: 19:09

a year.

Colt Knight: 19:10

Yeah. Twice a year in the spring

Glenda Pereira: 19:11

and the Yeah.

Colt Knight: 19:12

In the spring when we’re done with the winter, and then in the fall right before we enter the wintertime. Yeah. But I you know, there’s other options. Sand is a good option. Not as available here.

Colt Knight: 19:25

If we lived in Arizona, sand would be a more common, bedding material. There’s synthetic materials that are available commercially that work, but they’re usually really expensive.

Glenda Pereira: 19:36

And then there’s straw. Obviously, there’s more straw that’s readily available in the Midwest. Yeah. But, straw is also an option, and especially for animals like like, younger animals. It’s a it’s a really nice material for keeping them insulated again.

Glenda Pereira: 19:55

They might do some nesting in it.

Colt Knight: 19:56

Especially, like, something with pigs. Yep. They’ll actually build a nest and, like, burrow into it to stay warm. Pigs rely on each other for heat. You know, the the they form the pig pile Yep.

Colt Knight: 20:09

So they can stay warm, but they also get underneath that that bedding. So having dry bedding in that situation is even doubly important, right, for the moisture. Plus, we don’t want it to draw the heat away from the animals.

Glenda Pereira: 20:22

Yeah. And then What about

Colt Knight: 20:25

you mentioned straw. We mentioned wood chips and and sawdust and whatnot. But what about hay? A lot of folks will use hay because straw is not as readily available here in Maine as hay would be.

Glenda Pereira: 20:38

Yeah. I mean, it obviously just varies on whether, you you have access and, you you know, you wanna be feeding the best hay, so you can use it. So some folks may use, like, a a round bale for out wintering, and so the animals eat some of it, and then they use some of that to lay on as well, for you know, in a pasture setting, during the day, and and so you can use that as well. So you just put a bale out there, and they can use that. But it just depends on availability.

Glenda Pereira: 21:10

And, of course, this year was a fantastic, forage production summer, but depending on, you you know, last year, 2020, summer of 2023, folks had a really hard time because it was so wet all summer long to produce, any type of forage so that it’s just gonna depend. But absolutely.

Colt Knight: 21:28

Yeah. I I tend to not like to use hay or straw in the barn because those fibers interweave with the manure, and it’s really difficult

Glenda Pereira: 21:39

to To clean up.

Colt Knight: 21:40

The clip Yeah. To clean it. Now if you had, like, a concrete floor and a skid steer, it doesn’t really make that big of a difference. Yeah. But if you’re doing it by hand Yeah.

Colt Knight: 21:50

The shovel or pitchforks, the the hay is definitely adds a lot more difficulty to cleaning. Not that it’s not good bedding. It’s just more difficult to clean, and I I tend to shy away from it.

Glenda Pereira: 22:03

Yeah. I think that’s why folks use it, like, in a pasture setting because that’s gonna add more organic matter back into the pasture as well.

Colt Knight: 22:09

And you can build up, like you were saying, that round bale, you can actually build up a little hump that might keep the animal out of the mud.

Glenda Pereira: 22:16

Right. Yep. So we, yeah, we discussed a lot of forms of bedding. I think the last thing we need to talk about is people. Mhmm.

Glenda Pereira: 22:26

So we talk a lot about animals, but the people that are doing the work for the animals need to keep mindful of, how to prop you know, dress appropriately, keeping layers on, taking layers off, making sure that they’re safe around equipment because, you know, it’s darker earlier than not. So making sure that we have, like, good lighting for folks to utilize when they’re working any of their equipment. And then, obviously, slipping on ice, so that’s a big thing here in Maine. It freezes and thaws and freezes and thaws, this constant change in temperature and humidity, throughout the day. So

Colt Knight: 23:05

I’ve got a story about that.

Glenda Pereira: 23:07

So One

Colt Knight: 23:08

of my first winters here in Maine, a chicken had got out, and I didn’t want it to get frostbite because a big storm was coming. And I remember I grabbed that chicken, I was walking it across the driveway to put it back in the barn, and I slipped on ice. And I did one of those cartoon deals

Glenda Pereira: 23:27

Yeah. Yeah.

Colt Knight: 23:27

You know, completely where my feet were all

Glenda Pereira: 23:29

in the air. And then

Colt Knight: 23:31

I held that chicken like a football, so I didn’t land on it. Yeah. And I remember I used my shoulder, and I landed square on my shoulder. Oh my. I had shoulder issues for almost 2 years Yes.

Colt Knight: 23:42

Because of that one fall I took, taking care of my chicken. So I think

Glenda Pereira: 23:47

really Investing into some, you you know

Colt Knight: 23:50

Spikes or cleats or something. And and what had happened, it’s one of those free stall cycles where the snow had melted, formed a puddle, and then it froze into, like, an ice rink. And then you get a little snow on top of it, and you don’t see it. Yeah. It’s just thick.

Glenda Pereira: 24:05

Yep. Yeah. No. Absolutely. So investing in good work here.

Glenda Pereira: 24:09

And then, hydrating and keeping your body fueled. So, we talked some about this in our tractor safety episode, but keeping mindful that when you’re fueled, you’re it it’ll help you be better prepared to manage your animals. And especially during storms, you know, the people taking care your animals depend on you. So Mhmm. You need to be, at your best as best as possible so that you can help your animals, during, the winter and any storms, to come.

Glenda Pereira: 24:43

Yep. So with that, I think, we gave folks a lot of things to think about. We’re just gonna reiterate the the common themes that we talked about, today. So for winter care, we wanna assess the health of our the current health of our animals. So body condition scoring is a really easy way to do that, even if you can’t take pictures so that you you can look back on those pictures and date them.

Glenda Pereira: 25:10

You know, have this documented somewhere.

Colt Knight: 25:12

It’s just as simple as writing it down. Yeah. Yeah. So, like, beef cattle, we score 1 through 9. Yep.

Colt Knight: 25:20

Dairy cattle and sheep, it’s 1 through 5. Pigs, 1 through 5. You just write that number down. Yeah. And then from week to week, if you look at the average of all your animals, if that average is going up, staying the same, or going down.

Colt Knight: 25:33

Yep. Yep. And, you know, if you if you don’t have a lot of animals, you can just do it individually, and you can see which animals are doing doing well and Yeah.

Glenda Pereira: 25:42

So meeting their needs, so making sure you know what stage of of life that in production that animal is. So if they are growing, they’re gonna need more protein, but they’re gonna all need the same amount of energy because they’re maintaining their needs, and they’re gonna have to obviously keep warm. So they’re gonna potentially have to, utilize more of the, intake that they’re having Yeah. To to thermoregulate. And and that includes, you know, having access to water.

Colt Knight: 26:15

And one of the fun things about our ruminant and hindgut fermenter friends, if they eat more fiber, they actually produce more body heat because the microorganisms that are breaking that down produce more heat.

Glenda Pereira: 26:29

Right.

Colt Knight: 26:30

So we can give our horses and our sheep and our cattle more hay, and just the just the process of them digesting it will actually increase their core body temperature and help keep them warmer.

Glenda Pereira: 26:43

Yeah. We often say, cows have an oven inside of them. Yeah. So ruminants have a nice little oven, so in the winter, it keeps them more and more. 50 gallon

Colt Knight: 26:52

I mean, it’s the size of a large trash

Glenda Pereira: 26:54

can Right.

Colt Knight: 26:55

That’s, like, producing heat just from the the as a byproduct of them fermenting the feed.

Glenda Pereira: 27:01

Yep. It’s about, like, 105 to 106 Fahrenheit. Nutrition, so bedding, like, we we talked about, making sure that it’s clean and that it’s, not gonna absorb a lot of moisture because that’s gonna

Colt Knight: 27:15

as possible.

Glenda Pereira: 27:16

Right. Keeping dry. And then ventilation was a really big one, making sure that those animals, are dry and that if we have a barn that retains a lot of moisture Yeah.

Colt Knight: 27:28

Ventilation is so important because if you don’t have proper ventilation, it doesn’t matter what bedding or bedding system you’re using. It’s gonna get wet just from condensation. Yeah.

Glenda Pereira: 27:37

Yeah. And then lastly, making sure that the people taking care of those animals are also taking care of themselves. So investing into some good footwear, in outer layers and gloves, as well as maybe, like, a headlamp or something alike so that you can work out in the winter conditions. So with that, thank you again for listening to the main farm cast. Cole, it was great for us to do an episode together.

Glenda Pereira: 28:02

I always enjoy, working in an episode together and learning from you.

Colt Knight: 28:07

It’s great to have you with us. The Maine Farmcast would love to hear from you. Send us your questions, comments, and suggested episodes to extension.farmcast@maine.edu.

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