Just Thinking Out Loud

How cold is it?

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Like age, cold is just a number. It does not matter what the actual temperature is but more of how it feels. Without looking at a thermometer, there are telling signs of just how cold it is outside.

Most mornings I like to stretch before I get moving, but on cold mornings, that can be rather difficult. It feels so snugly warm under a pile of heavy blankets that the only way I am getting out is to just throw the blankets back in one swift motion and jump out of bed. Then there is the scramble to find warm clothes. I really do not want to move but the calves are calling for breakfast, so I have to get going.

I knew it was cold this morning when the sun didn’t even want to crawl over the frozen horizon. The glow of a purple and red dawn stretching out along the dark horizon is how I have been greeted most mornings, until today. The rays waited for the sun to burst forth through the silhouette of barren trees be-fore they lit up the skyline. It was so cold, even the sun wanted to stay in bed.

As he wrapped up church services, our priest shared some wise words on how to survive this cold weather snap. He said it is all about putting on enough layers of clothing that you cannot fit through the door, so you just have to stay inside.  Either I do not have enough layers or else our doors are too wide because I can still cross the threshold.

I feel like the Michelin tire man waddling across the farmyard pulling my wagon of warm milk bottles for a string of hungry calves. I have on enough layers to keep the cold at bay, but then I have to strip when I get in the barn to fill bottles or bed stalls because I am too hot. These temperature swings are worse than menopause. I actually feel just fine outside as long as there is no wind. That is the deal breaker for dealing with cold temperatures.

Years ago, Mark’s dad did not calve in the winter months. He did not want to try to keep the calves alive during the frigid Minnesota winters. Then someone came up with the clever idea to have a winter calf class at the summer county fairs and voila. Now we calve in December but try to limit January and February calving to only cows that were open too long and needed to get bred back regardless of due dates. We had 21 heifer calves born in the month of December alone. There was only one bull calf, and Mark used very little sexed semen. Just when I thought we should be slowing down, it seems we have ramped up.

At least we only have seven animals to calve in January and February, but I still have over 20 heifer calves to feed outside every day for two months. By the time I empty the domes of December calves, we will start all over with a rush for spring calf class entries March 1. It is a vicious three-month cycle, and I do not seem to get an extended break.

When we were at Expo in October, we talked about how we might need to update our Ritchie water fountains in the heifer shed. We haven’t had a severely cold weather snap in several years, so we have vague memories of dealing with frozen fountains. The waterers we have were originally installed in 1980. In our minds that was not that long ago. However, when someone talks about something happening 30 years ago, we jump to the 1970s and not the 1990s. It is probably time to replace them. You can say we have gotten our money’s worth out of them.

Did we replace them? Well, since it was not an immediate problem to remind us, it kind of slipped to the bottom of the list. That is until the temperatures bottomed out and the heating units could not keep up. Mark has been hauling buckets of hot water to all the fountains trying to keep them open and the cattle hydrated. I think we might need to jump on that replacement project. Heaven knows we have enough calves to raise over the next couple of years to get our money’s worth out of them.

As their four children pursue dairy careers off the family farm, Natalie and Mark Schmitt started an adventure of milking registered Holsteins just because they like good cows on their farm north of Rice, Minnesota.

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