The Moos Room™

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Joe: Welcome to The Moos Room, everybody. I am recording, just double-checked. We are without Dr. Bradley J. Heins today.
Emily: Boo.
Joe: I know. It's awful. We had a topic lined up and now we're having to really scramble to find a new one because Brad and I were planning to argue a lot today, talk about vaccines and so it's just not going to happen. The reason that he's not here is we have some terrible weather hitting Minnesota now and he just had to get some stuff done at the dairy. That's life as a farmer and we may not like--
Emily: Yes, had to take care of the calves.
Joe: Yes. We might not like to admit it, but Bradley does a lot of work so, yes. He's got plenty going on at the dairy, and with COVID going on, he's doing a lot of it himself because there you can't have a bunch of workers at the dairy as well. Yes, we're without him today.
Emily: That's a long way of saying, "You just get me and Joe today."
Joe: Yes. You're stuck with us.
Emily: What are we because there's the OG3?
Joe: I don't know. [crosstalk]
Emily: We're like the Dynamic Duo.
Joe: I think we have to be. Yes.
Emily: The Gruesome Twosome.
Joe: We got Gruesome Twosome. I think that's probably--
[laughter]
Joe: Okay, so--
Emily: You got Gruesome Twosome today, people.
Joe: No, we're just going to roll with that theme. Bradley's not here because of bad weather and that's what we're going to talk about today. Haven't talked about it on the podcast much. It's something that, strangely enough, happens every year. There's been changes in the winter. We get snow, we get ice, we get freeze in the rain.
Emily: Yet we're so surprised every time it happens.
Joe: Every time. That first snowstorm is probably the worst because no one's quite ready for it. In Minnesota, we like to practice a huge, just huge piece of denial. If we don't think about winter, maybe it won't actually happen, that kind of thing.
Emily: Says you not me. I like winter.
Joe: I know you've got that figure skating connection, and now you're training to be a hockey referee, all these winter things that you got going on.
Emily: I know. Yes, yes. I'm a winter enthusiast indeed.
Joe: Let's get into it.
Emily: Anyways.
Joe: Yes. Anyways, let's talk about weather. Snow is the one that we always think about. I think actually the bigger factor for me is wind. Wind is a bad deal. We can handle a lot of snow, a lot of deep snow, but you get that and combined with wind, and you get all these big drifts, it buries cattle, it buries calves. It just becomes a huge nightmare. For me, that's the thing that really bothers me about severe weather, is the wind.
Emily: Yes, and wind also can impact facilities. We know it's happened here in Minnesota where barns have been destroyed just by strong winds. I think that that's a really fair concern to have.
Joe: Yes, and I think we put out spots on the radio, and we try to warn people when weather's coming in, what do you do? How do you be prepared? What do you do with cattle? Especially beef cattle or, in Brad's case, dairy cattle that are out on pasture. When you know it's on its way, and you know what it's coming, what do you do, and what's the most important thing you can do? It definitely changes situation to situation, right? It depends on how far out your cattle are, what kind of facilities you have? Do you have the ability to get cattle inside? Of course, if you can get all the cattle inside, you should.
Emily: Yes, and I would say it also depends on the time of the year because I think back, oh, it's been quite a few years now, when in South Dakota there was winter storm Atlas. That was a very, very early winter storm. These cattle were out stranded on pasture, and they didn't have their winter coats grown in yet. It was, yes, wet and heavy snow and windy, and a lot of cattle perished because of that storm due to those conditions. I think it's really important to be mindful of that too. Is this typical for this time of year? Are the cattle biologically ready in that they've put on those heavy winter hair coats or are you, also, dealing with, it's wet, and it's cold, and they're not going to be warm, or whatever else it may be.
Joe: Yes, we definitely have a horrible example that we had that we learned a lot from. It's tragedy that it happened, but with that South Dakota storm, that was, all of a sudden, tons of snow, tons of wind drifting, cattle buried. For the most part, we're talking about 5% of the region's cattle died in that one event. That was a massive loss for that community. That's something you have to be ready for or at least have something in place, and so we're back to what do you do about these things? The first step is usually to have a plan so that if something does happen, you're not scrambling and making it up as you go. You know what you're going to do if you know there's something like that that's on the way.
Emily: Yes. We love plans here at The Moos Room.
Joe: Absolutely.
Emily: Plans, and management, and cleanliness, and all of those things.
Joe: Exactly.
Emily: I think all of those really wrap into what we're talking about today, is just being organized, knowing what is where, knowing what the plan is, what's going to happen in X, Y, Z situation.
Joe: There's definitely gray area. Again, we're painting this pretty black and white. You need to have a plan, you got to have time to prepare for winter. We recognize that there's a lot of people out there that have cattle, it's not their day job, right? They're working off the farm, they don't have a ton of time, might not have a ton of facilities. The thing that I like to point out a lot is that cattle are super hardy. They can get through a lot. They're tough animals, and if they're conditioned to the weather and at least they have a hair coat, they can handle some pretty cold weather with not a whole lot of help, and really the help, like we talked about right away is the wind. A windbreak is by far the biggest thing you can do for any cattle, whether you've got dairy or beef cattle outside, it doesn't really matter. The windbreak is the most important piece.
Emily: Yes, and that can be the trees or I know people, and Bradley has some of the dairy in Morris that are manmade, built with slots of wood, and that is a really inexpensive project that you can do just to help provide that little extra piece of protection.
Joe: Absolutely. I think when we're talking about windbreak specifically, you'd prefer something a little taller with not a whole lot of gaps, and that's because you don't want it to turn into a snow fence, that then just piles snow behind it and your windbreak becomes not super effective. For me, the windbreak is the most important and that brings us to, especially if you got cattle on pasture, the windbreak is the focus of where you put your feed. One of the best ways to get your cattle congregated behind this windbreak is to just get feed behind it and that's where they're going to hang out. Water, feed, put that behind the windbreak and the cattle will just naturally go there if you don't have the ability to make them stay behind that windbreak.
Emily: Yes, and thank you for mentioning water along with feed, tie back to a recent episode that we had about the importance of water even in the winter. You're right, water, food at its core, it's life to animals. You're right, they will seek that out. I think that that is a very good strategy to put those near each other because if you don't, the cattle are going to choose the feed and the water before they choose the windbreak.
Joe: Absolutely, and know-
Emily: That way you aren't setting them up to be stranded.
Joe: Right. Cattle do get buried. I think one of the big temptations, especially with pasture is that you see that there's a quick bottom or some kind of swell and you want to put the feed there and have that act as a windbreak. Initially, that's an okay thought, but if you get enough snow with enough wind, that's the first place those drifts get massive, and that you can actually bury cattle by putting feed and water into those spots and trying to use those spots as a windbreak. You're much better to try to find a windbreak on something that's really flat and not worry about trying to put them-
Emily: Right level. Yes.
Joe: -yes, in a quick bottom like that because you can actually do more harm than good if you're trying to do that. The other piece of this is bedding. Bedding goes a long way too if you can get a good bedded pack started or know that something's going on. Obviously, two days aren't enough time to start a bedded pack, but to get some really deep bedding out there, especially for your calves, that's going to help a lot, and it's going to keep them warm, keep the cattle, again, congregated behind that windbreak use each other for warmth. It's going to go a long way.
Now we're down to windbreak, food, water, bedding. That's how you keep cattle where you want them if you don't have the ability to pen them in or have fencing or facilities. I'm not focusing on buildings on purpose. If you have the ability to bring cattle inside, just get them inside, but that's not--
Emily: Yes, don't waste your time with this crap.
Joe: Yes, but not everyone can do that. Water, let's talk more about water, because-
Emily: Water.
Joe: -it's a big deal, and especially as it gets cold, you got to be checking it every day. Then we're talking about the aftermath of the storm as well. There's a lot of damage, obviously, that can happen with these severe weather incidents and these events, and you got to be looking at, "All right, what's the fallout of that?" There's maybe consequences from the storm that you didn't think about initially, so it's a great time to double, triple check. Is all the water working? Is everything available for the cattle before you turn them back out after the storm as well?
Emily: Yes, and water touches on a broader and very important topic of utilities. Especially on dairy farms, we were talking about this before we started recording, Joe, backup power, generator, do you have one? Is it ready? What do you need to do to get it ready? Those types of things too, besides just water, those other things that you need that are essential to day-to-day operations.
Joe: Yes, and it's probably my least favorite way to arrive on a dairy early morning for herd check, to drive in to the driveway and see that the tractor's out, connected to power, and the PTS spinning. You know that that farmer's had a really bad morning already and [crosstalk]
Emily: That's when you just back out of the driveway, come back later.
Joe: You send a phone call and just be like, "Hey, are we still on? I'm on my way," even though you're already there just to make sure that you're giving that farmer every excuse to unload his plate if you can. Yes, I think that there's a lot of power considerations as well when we're talking dairy specifically. Again, we're back to having a plan. You got to be prepared for when that happens because it's going to happen eventually, and it might not even be related to severe weather at all.
Emily: We were talking about this too, Joe, a part of a plan. In my farm safety work, I talk a lot about emergency action plans, and that includes having one for inclement weather. Something that, when we think about power and water and these other resources, it's really important to just think about the layout of your farm, like where are things located? In this type of situation, do we need to turn things off? Do we need to make sure things are running? Do we need to move or relocate things? It's better, like you were saying at the beginning of this, Joe, to plan for it, to be prepared, instead of in the moment needing to make these decisions when you haven't really thought about how the layout of your farm impacts how you can respond to emergency situations.
Joe: I think that's a huge point. It comes back to the plan, and being able to have the plan ready to go also involves just knowing your system and your operations super well. Part of that, I think, is really helpful for me if I can see that map and I can see where are we going to have to go to get cattle, how long is it really going to take, are we better to leave them there than trying to get them home, all these other things. I think that that's a huge piece of it, if you can get a big image of it, really talk through and include everyone on the farm, to know who's going to be involved.
Emily talks about safety and her role in safety. One of the big things that I always, always really push in all of this is to say, yes, your cattle are important, you should feel some responsibility for their care and should feel like you need to do everything you can, but at a certain point, you can't sacrifice your own safety. There's some really, really bad conditions, and especially when we talk about big drifts and snow, and trying to get feed the cattle and things like that, getting stuck, and a lot of farmers are working on their own. There's some very unsafe situations so you need- slow down, the first step. Like we've talked about in the past when we've talked about safety, slow down, really think it through, and decide is the risk too great for you to put yourself out there and be unsafe.
Emily: Yes, I think that's a really great point, Joe. I'm glad you brought that up. We've seen this time and again in all sorts of situations, blizzards, fires, etcetera. People doing everything they can to save their cattle, and sometimes at the loss of their own lives. I think that it's good that you bring that up and I remind people too that especially for cattle that are outside, they're animals. They have some of those natural instincts they can rely on to get themselves where they need to be or make sure that they have food or a water source. Not perfect, not ideal but, yes, I will always say, "You need to come first." I say that really on the mental health side, but it's applicable to all areas of your health and your safety, is you have to take care of you first. Yes, I'm glad you brought that up, Joe.
Joe: There you go. I've heard some very crazy stories about people doing some incredibly dangerous things, all in the name of trying to take care of their animals. It worries me how willing some people are to put themselves in danger. I get it. I totally get it. Yes, it makes some sense, but you got to draw the line somewhere and just keep in mind that you got to take care of yourself.
The other thing we haven't really talked about so far is that we're talking really about one-time events. If these things go on for longer, especially when we're talking about cold, extreme cold, for long periods, you got to be prepared to do this not just for a day, maybe two. What if it gets so bad that you're doing this for a week? We've definitely seen that here in Minnesota. It's an issue, so you got to have a plan for that too.
We're back to planning, making sure you know, "Okay, what if I have to do this for more than two days, or what if I can't access certain things? What if the tractor doesn't start?" You got to have a plan for this. I think most farmers are so resourceful that they could probably figure it out in the moment, but it would take a lot of stress off of everyone if you could have a plan for those things ahead of time.
Emily: Yes, you don't have to MacGyver your tractor to get it to run your generator.
Joe: Exactly, which then becomes even more dangerous because now you're in severe weather conditions and you're trying to run on equipment that you piece together, all these different things, right?
Emily: Right, yes.
Joe: The other piece of that cold issue is thinking about feed. When it gets that cold, these animals need more calories. It's just the way it is to maintain. That comes back to you also, making sure that your animals are in the correct body condition to start with. If they're too thin or too fat, they're not going to be able to get through and weather some of these severe events. Make sure they're ready to go into it and prepared on the animal side as well to deal with as much stress as they can. Then, yes, making sure you're feeding extra if you have to based on the temperature.
Emily: Yes, absolutely. Those are just regular wintertime considerations to make too, making sure there's an increase in feed, again, access to water, all of those things. Yes, we're really viewing this through the lens of severe weather, a storm, or yes, a shorter period of time, a more acute event, but I think that these are important reminders for all winter long.
Joe: The last thing we'll talk about here before we wrap up, and we have a pretty short episode, is on the business side, making sure that you're covered on the insurance side for some of these things. If you're not, you got to make sure you're asking those questions when you're talking to your insurance provider. "Am I covered?" Yes, everyone asks about lightning and all these other things. We didn't even talk about flooding today, but that's another huge disaster that you need to be prepared for. Are you covered for these severe events, outside of what maybe the government might be able to do and subsidize? is your insurance company willing to work with you to cover these severe events if you can show that you're doing everything possible to protect your animals?
Emily: Yes. I would say that's a reminder too that you should be checking in with your insurance agent at least once a year to make sure you're coverage is up-to-date. I know people that have built new buildings and just simply forgot to call insurance, and then there's a fire or something happens and that building's not covered. I think that that's a really good reminder is look into those things, ask those questions. It's important to be in communication with those folks, too, so that when things like these happen, you have a relationship with them, when you call them and go, "My barn roof collapsed because of snow," or whatever it may be.
Joe: Yes. Definitely check in, make sure that you're covered on the business side. After that, remember, above all, keep yourself safe, slow down. Remember not to panic. Remember that the livestock, cattle, whatever species you're working with, might also be inclined to panic if the weather event is bad enough. Stay safe, have a plan. Have a plan. Plan.
Emily: Have a plan.
Joe: Maybe make up another plan, and then make another plan.
Emily: Then have a plan for the plan, a backup plan for the backup plan.
Joe: Exactly, exactly.
Emily: Several plans.
Joe: All the plans.
Emily: That's important to note too, is that plans are very fluid. Have a rough idea of what you want to do, but also know that you may need to be flexible. A certain part of your plan may fall through or not be possible if it's blocked by snow or out of power, whatever it might be.
Joe: I just remembered something that I really wanted to say. This is actually the last thing this time. We're in Minnesota. I'd love to believe that Minnesota nice is a real thing. Reach out to your neighbors, make sure that you're checking in on everybody around you as well, whether you need help or making sure that they don't need help. Checking on everybody around you, lean on each other, that's a lot of what gets us through some of these things. Maybe the simplest plan if your tractor doesn't start, is to call down the road and ask the neighbor if his tractor started. As long as you're making that plan ahead of time and talking to him about it, perfect. That's a great solution.
Emily: Yes, absolutely. It's so important to use the neighborhood, or they say, it takes a village, and it really does, even in situations like this. I remember our neighbors that we would call on for certain things growing up, especially in the winter, who has a tractor that has chains on the tires, those kinds of things.
Joe: Good deal. All right. Well, we're going to stop--
Emily: Was that actually the last thing or--
Joe: It is. We're going to wrap now because we're going to stop talking at you. We got plenty of material here. You're sick of listening to us. I am actually up north, and I'm in the middle of a blizzard right now.
Emily: Yes, poor Joe up north at a cabin for the holidays.
Joe: I know, it's a tough life.
Emily: It must be hard. Wow.
Joe: In the middle of nowhere, there's no people. No offense to anybody out there, but it's nice. We will--
Emily: We know, Joe, you don't like people. Well, Bradley doesn't like people.
Joe: I know. I'm just--
Emily: You're people-neutral. I love people.
Joe: Yes, that's about right. You love people. I'm people-neutral. Bradley hates people.
Emily: Yes.
Joe: That's all you need to remember from this episode.
Emily: Nice. [chuckles]
Joe: We'll wrap it there. Thank you for listening. If you have comments, questions, scathing rebuttals, please send them to themoosroom@umn.edu.
Emily: That's themoosroom@umn.edu.
Joe: Check out the website extension.umn.edu, and check us out on Facebook @UMNBeef and @UMNDairy. We're also on Twitter finally, just happened, @UMNmoosroom.
Emily: You can also find @UMNFarmSafety on Twitter.
Joe: Thank you, everybody.
Emily: Bye. Bye. Oh, I miss Bradley. He just screams the right amount of negativity.
Joe: [unintelligible 00:21:44] he's talking.
Emily: We agreed too much. [laughs]
Joe: We agreed too much. There wasn't any negativity. There wasn't any snide comments, and there was no one to make fun of--
Emily: We're just geared to have a good time.
Joe: No one to make fun of either. This is awful.
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[00:21:58] [END OF AUDIO]

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