Preparing for the winter

[Deleted]

  Ok we move in three  weeks or less and I am concerned. Need some info. please
 Hans and Gene at one time I saw you have a auto water system and I will be running
water and electric upgrade to animal barn and want to add these  in corners  of pasture
areas for future completion. Thought to beat winter I may install frost free hyd. for
now.
 Also any issue with grazing three aceres of 12" grass and clover after frost?

[genebo]

You will do better to copy Hans' model for winter waterers than mine, as far north as you are. I'm in cwntral Virginia, with slightly warmer winters. My waterers have been tested to perform quite well with no electricity in our winters, but may not stay unfrozen under the assault of northern winters.

Here's my best advice: Move south!

[lakeportfarms]

Hi Gene!  Hope you're doing better now...

Blessings Farms, if you have the opportunity to get an auto waterer installed I'd highly recommend it over just a hydrant (though you'll probably want both).  We put our waterers on the fencelines with the hydrant a short distance away, though with some of the waterers where I really don't need a hydrant I've just put a frost free spigot into the side so I can hook up a hose in the summer months for our rotational grazing.  We've used the Behlen AW80 with a lot of success (We also have the AW 60 but it's not as good as I'll explain later in the post).  I don't like the ball waterers because if they are not used frequently the balls can freeze or in our case, they are so low that they'll get covered with snow.  I don't mind running electricity to the waterers, because I always have a use for electricity out in the area they waterers are, and since I'm digging a trench 5' deep for the water lines anyway...  The AW 60 is lower, and we purchased those for the areas that we have the new mommas and calves during the winter months thinking the calves could drink more easily, but last year they were under the snow level.  They stayed open because of the heated water, but they had a tendency to get stepped in and pooped on.  They held up under all that, and a good pressure washing in the spring and they were as good as new.

The key to making the waterers work well is to use as much ground source heat as possible.  I build a pressure treated wood base of 32" x 48" out of 4x4's, 2x10's, and 3/4" pressure treated plywood, including plywood sides that are 4' deep, and place it in a hole that is 5-6' deep and then filled with a foot or two of gravel.  I then insulate the plywood sides, and bring up a 12" sonotube from the gravel, poking up a few inches above the plywood top.  This is where your water and electric line runs up, and ground heat is able to also come up inside the "box" of the waterer to help keep it warm.   The area between the sonotube and box is tightly packed with straw, and then the wood deck is put on top of the box and the waterer hooked up and placed over it.  Eventually, I form a concrete pad around the perimeter, but there is pressure treated wood a few inches around the outside of the waterer.  I've not had any problems with the wood deteriorating, and it serves as a very effective thermal break .  Then a lot of gravel around the perimeter of the concrete and you're good to go.  The Behlen AW waterers have a heat pad under the base of the water, which is only 100 watts and thermostatically controlled.  Right now on one of them (I haven't had a chance to do the others) I have also hooked up a weatherproof switch to turn the heat on and off, and also have a small led type light placed in the side of the waterer so I can be sure the electricity is on to it.

I'll see what I can do to get a photo for you and post it.

[Deleted]

We are in the process of putting in 2 Mirco ball waters now. we are installing 10" * 36" insulated tube with the same size tile line under that. we will be putting closed cell foam under the concrete pad.

[Deleted]

Thanks guys. I know I will end up fight weather before this is over. I was able to lay out
paddocks today with mower. Made stripes in 12" high field the Simplicity didn't even grunt it sure
helped visualize the lay out. Well have 30' wide run area around 1 side and one end total of 120'.
Put 45 deg. 12' gate each corner to 1 plus acre paddocks. I know compared to you guys its small but
I walked it out and only redid 2 stripes I was almost proud of my self. One of the section line works
out for a water area on fence to work two areas other side works for water for other and 1/2 acre area
for male goats. Hope to use one water for each side due to rotation of them. With only 3 to 5 Dexters
max I think this should work.
 Almost forgot got any bets on first snow yet Hans ? I'm  kind of hoping for no earlier than end of Jan.

[lakeportfarms]

Actually the weather is saying there is a chance of snow in Northern Michigan this weekend. That would be a little early, since the lakes moderate the temperature quite a bit compared to areas like Minnesota and Wisconsin which don't get the lake effect. I have a feeling this will be a snowy winter. Good luck with your projects, we're racing the clock here as well. It seems like we do this every fall!

[lakeportfarms]

This little Scottish Highland calf of ours is ready for the winter though.

[Deleted]

Lakport do you ever butcher these because that would
make a great coat for me.

[Deleted]

Lakeport do you ever butcher these because that would
make a great coat for me.

[lakeportfarms]

We do. As long as you don't mind looking like this:

[Deleted]

I have got to show this to Nancy and Bea. I have a 63 lbs. beaver mounted my
son traped by our home and thought it scared poeple. Is the suit removable
for holloween or is that you.

[lakeportfarms]

No, that's "Wookie" from Star Wars. A lady we acquired some of our foundation stock from had a coat made from one, and she mentioned she looked like "Wookie" when she wore it. You can see why!

They are expensive to tan, around $800.00 for a fully grown Highland, and very few places in the country will do it due to the size and because of the hair.

[Deleted]

Brrrr! Hans, 5:40 and 38. 80 two days ago.
Im not ready Dave.

[lakeportfarms]

Other than a few things I'd like to finish up involving some digging or pounding of fence posts, I'm looking forward to frozen ground now. With the recent rains of the past few days, cool temperatures, and persistent clouds off of the lakes nothing is drying out for the foreseeable future. Maybe we'll get another stretch of sunny dry weather like we did a week ago, but the chances are getting lower and lower now that we're into October, or whatever we do get will be short lived. I think this is the cows favorite time of the year. No flies, cool but not cold temperatures, plenty of food to eat, and they probably don't have a idea what is in store for them weather wise over the next 6 months!

[Deleted]

cows definitely loving the weather but I think they know exactly what is coming.

[jamshundred]

Hans. You have a great wit! Darn Wookie is cute!! I am intrigued by the photos of your dwarf Highlands. They are drop-dead adorable. After my first cow here on the farm, a Jersey for milking....I discovered Highlands and bought a bull and three cows from a Doctor who let them range untended. We spent hours trying to herd those cows into a loading area. He would do nothing to help and we finally said forget it. Then I read about Dexters and ...........

[lakeportfarms]

Judy, It's a little side project of ours, if you call 30 Highlands a side project   It all started at the same time we got our first two Dexters, Mike and Cedar.  Wow, I think about it and it was almost 9 years ago now!  The owner also had a Highland that I was absolutely enamored with.  He said she's for sale too, and so I had to get her because she was so beautiful.  We started looking for more, and found one where the people were moving from Michigan (it was happening a lot back then) who had this stunning Highland cow that was 8 years old along with a few others.  We ended up breeding to Mike and getting High/Dex calves, and the first one out of the stunning Highland was a chondro pos bull calf.  We kept him intact and saw him breed a couple of our heifers one summer at the farm.  That fall, we took him and some Highland heifers back to our house which was in the country but near suburbia (60 miles away), and somebody took some shrub clippings and threw them over the fence along the road thinking they were feeding the cows.  Unfortunately it was Japanese Yew, which is highly toxic.  We lost Heath, a small Highland bull, and 5 heifers from that.  Only two young ones who were pushed off the food survived.

However, next spring we were blessed with a couple of little 3/4 Highland, 1/4 Dexter short bulls that looked a lot like the Highlands to carry on his genetics, and we started our little project of trying to make Dwarf "Highlands".  They're pretty hard to make and as I mentioned it's been almost 9 years now!

It doesn't surprise me that you were interested in Highlands to start, but it's a good thing you didn't come to us for your first experience with them or they would have been in the trailer with a halter and a lead after we walked up to them in the pasture and put it on them.  Your Dexters, along with many others out there, would agree.  Highlands are in no danger of being crossed or diluted (or the favorite word, improved) and still called pure Highlands or worse yet registered as such.  The Dexter breed needed you!