Everyone doing OK in the deepfreezer

[lonecowhand]

That's a cute one of the calves, do they crawl under there themselves? Looks cozy! Thanks for sharing that, Genebo!

[Blessings Farms]

High of 9 tomorrow then forecast 30 to 50 and up
from there !!!! Gene what is that white stuff in the
one picture ha! Hans sorry about freezing but that
does happen. I have started laying a layer of straw
on lines it acts like a deflector for frost. Grave
dug yesterday had frost at 26" when this warm up
comes (if) may drive it to 30 - 36 deep. Want to
start the green house up but don't want to heat it
yet only a month for planting potatoes according to
the old guys like me.

[genebo]

There is heat deep in the ground. The cold in the air draws the heat. Putting straw or hay on top of the ground slows the heat loss, so the ground stays warmer.

That is why the calves and the grown-up cattle like to lay on the hay. I watched Bradan and Cathy walk around in the hay until they had made a hole to lay in. They did it together as if they had been choreographed. It must be instinctual.

My grandfather had no heat for his cold frame. He cleaned it out every fall and re-filled it with fresh chicken manure, maybe a foot deep. He set his planters on top of the manure.

That was in Arkansas. Not as cold as Ohio.

[lakeportfarms]

We got 4-6" of snow yesterday, and the temperature has warmed but it's due to go below zero again the next couple of nights. I took some decomposing beet shreds, and put them on the area where I think it's frozen, then piled some straw from the cleaned out stalls on top. It's right in front of a gate that I use to go into a pasture to feed some of the herd, so I'm driving over a 2' high mound when I take in hay for them. It's been down a couple of days, but still no thaw in the pipe. Perhaps it's frozen in a few other places as well where the snow is packed down.

You would think 70" deep would keep it from freezing, especially since the water runs through it to the auto waterers, but apparently not enough of them were drinking enough water. From what I've been reading, I'm not the only one with problems, Some people have lost their entire water service to their homes, and have had to have water trucked in, or move to a motel.

[Deleted]

They say below 42" here. We put everything at 4' and never had an issue. You have said before that you have a high water table. I wonder if that extra water is helping it to freeze deeper.
I think now that it has frozen it will be a long time before it thaws that deep. I would have thought the moving water in the line would have also kept it from freezing. Could it be froze below the waters.

[lonecowhand]

That is really deep to be frozen, Hans. Could it be just the vertical risers to the waterers that are frozen? Whats the recommended footing depth for building there? And really off the wall, how deep does the ice get on the Lake near you?

[lakeportfarms]

I don't think it's the risers to the waterers or hydrants. I have two frozen auto waterers, and one hydrant that doesn't work. Judging by how the water lines were run, the blockage comes right before I put a T in the line that serves both autowaterers, and the one hydrant near the waterer. The T happens to be right were a gate is off the drive that is very hard packed snow. Since it happened simultaneously at all of the areas, that was my best guess where the problem started. Of course, now that there is no water flowing at all, it could have spread to other areas. Plastic pipe, so the welder trick to heat metal pipe doesn't work, and I never made the provision that I can use the other technique with plastic pipe of running a smaller PEX pipe with hot water inside up to the blockage, because I have too many elbows and T's in the pipe and no easy way to access the pipe to get into it without digging a deep hole. Like digging concrete right now. I thought about burning some brush over the area, but I have a wood fence very close so I'm not interested in replacing some of that either...lol

Mike, I think you are probably correct about the high water table.  It's always been my concern here in the winter.  And last summer and fall were very wet.

Lake Huron is about 95% frozen right now. Pretty much a record or near record for ice cover. I'd say going out 1/2 mile or so the ice is 4-6' thick, past that and it depends a bit on the wind direction and velocity. Brisk winds tend to break up the ice.

The other morning out the window on a nice sunny day...No, our cows don't get this view, they're on the farm a couple miles inland...lol Well, let me revise that, there have been a few times we've brought little weaned heifers home with us and left them in the trailer if we need to watch them for some reason.

[Deleted]

burning brush will not help. I had that thought years ago when I needed to dig. Since heat rises it had very little affect on the ground. What kind of pipe is it? If it is black poly it can take freezing pretty well but if that T is frozen it might not take it. Are you able to keep the waters and the lines going up to them thawed so they dont bust.

[lakeportfarms]

Mike, I think the waterers are probably fine, they're protected enough with the housing and the water pipe runs up a PVC tube that brings up the ground heat, plus the electric heating element under the water keeps it warm in the box.

It's the T and elbow fittings I'm worried about. I guess I'll find out at some point if I see a constant wet area or water percolating up from that area.

I figured it would have to be a pretty big and long lasting fire to thaw the ground a bit! When it was so cold though it would have to help some, but there is no way the fence wouldn't have been scorched.

[Blessings Farms]

If your desperate use a fire hydrant heater its basicly
a commercial salamander with a hood. We have used them on
entrance lines before.

[lakeportfarms]

I think I'm just going to have to let mother nature correct this problem and hopefully in a couple of weeks it will be past history, but a lesson to be learned for next winter! On the hydrants we've started putting black 55 gallon poly barrels over the top of them. If it's sunny during the day that probably helps warm up the ground and hydrant, and it certainly helps with the wind chill. I get them for $5 each from a guy that works at a e coat and powder coat factory in Port Huron. They have had the water soluble e-coat paint in them, so they are easily washed out and cleaned.

We just had one of our Highland cows calve yesterday, so I'm looking forward to kicking her out of the stall this weekend! Right adjacent to her we have one of our dwarf Dexters, and the difference between the two is huge! Actually, the difference between the dwarf Dexter and the long legged Dexter we have in another stall is pretty big too. I don't think folks who don't have both, and have them in a stall like that, realize how much different they are.

Oh, Gene, Maggie is also in a stall and due to calve in the next day or so.

[Deleted]

I think the last really cold night here was last night. Tonight is suppose to be 13 and then up from there. We have one in the barn waiting to calve. She is one of our full Colorado girls and the fist one to calve here. I am glad she made it past this cold snap before calving. She is a real hard one to read. One day I look at her and think real close and then the next day she looks like she has a while.

[lonecowhand]

Hans, a photo would clearly show the differences in height!(hint, hint)
Geesh, your maternity ward has a quick turnout plan!

[lakeportfarms]

Hopefully the last cold morning here for a while, it's -15F outside...brrr....I'm ready for 30's baby! No calf from Maggie or the others on the full or almost full moon, thank goodness. It should be a lot better from now on I think.

Bill, here are a few comparison shots from this morning. Sorry but something isn't right with my phone photos when I have it on flash, but I think you get the idea about how the different cows take up their space in the stall. Guess which one I prefer going into swapping out frozen water buckets for fresh ones 3 x day?

Our Highland cow, she's 17 years old!



Non carrier Dexter cow, 8 years old:



Dwarf Dexter cow, 8 years old:

[lakeportfarms]

By the way, those yellow racks you see in the photo are repurposed racks that I receive glass on from my suppliers.  I built a wood box around 3 sides and can fill them with hay.  The nice thing about all this is that they are easily removed with the pallet forks, so the space can be reconfigured into some other purpose if the stalls are not filled with cows, or if it's really bad I can get into it with the tractor to clean out the stall.  And the racks stack on top of each other so they don't take up storage space when not in use.  I have some fine tuning to do with the doors and a latch, right now I just tie a rope around to hold the doors close, but that is really low on the list of things to do.

Oh, and I just thought about the photos.  It's minus teens outside, so maybe the camera on the phone thinks it's too cold....

[wvdexters]

We are warming up here too. They are saying 50+ by the weekend. I think even the cows are excited!!

[lakeportfarms]

Karrie I saw on the news that Kentucky and W.Virginia had a lot of flooding recently with some heavy rain, and with a lot of snow and more temperatures more was on the way?

[wvdexters]

I saw that too. They are really getting hit down there. It can get bad this time of yr if the snow melts off too quickly, especially if you add in more rain. The mountain streams fill up quickly.

We are going to be OK here. The snow isn't too deep right now and our place is up on the top of the hill.

[lakeportfarms]

Good to hear Karrie! With all the snow and rain I can see where the creeks would really be flowing and cause problems.