Keeping Your Livestock Warm in Winter

While the harvest season may be over, your work as a farmer is not complete just because the cold temperatures have hit. If you maintain livestock like sheep, goats, cows or horses, you have to care for them year-round. Winter presents unique challenges with livestock management due to the cold as well as precipitation and wind. That’s why it’s important to do everything you can to ensure the health and well-being of your animals all winter long.

Bobcat PNW, with six locations throughout Washington State, is your Pacific Northwest headquarters for all things agricultural. Here are our top tips for keeping your animals healthy, warm and safe this winter.

Provide Plentiful Food & Water

Animals burn calories in order to produce heat, and they have to burn more calories in the cold to keep themselves warm. When you fill up troughs with food, increase the amount that you’d typically feed your creatures by 20% to account for this additional caloric need. You may even wish to add some vital minerals and supplements to improve your animals’ nutrition during the winter.

Another essential for your animals is water, which must be kept from freezing. You can invest in insulated water tanks and troughs if you live in an especially cold area to ensure that water doesn’t freeze overnight. Make sure that you’re replenishing water frequently and that it stays clean and doesn’t get scummy.

Shore Up Your Shelters

Chances are good that your barn could use a little TLC now that winter is settling in. Time and weather will have taken their toll and you’ll want to patch up any holes in the exterior and make necessary repairs to the roof and doors to keep the interior from losing heat. If you want to protect your animals outside, you can install a windbreak, which is a fence that blocks the wind from hitting the animals with its full force. That way, you can let your animals out to exercise and graze without worrying about them getting too cold.

Install Heating

If your barn or other storage facility is not warm enough in itself even after repairs, then you may want to add some artificial heat sources to keep your animals toasty. Infrared heaters make use of radiant heat to warm small and large spaces. Be cautious of using heaters near flammable materials like hay, however; you’ll want to check that the heater doesn’t get too hot and that it’s separated from anything that could catch on fire.

Let Your Animals Acclimate Themselves

Of course, your animals have evolved to be able to survive some extremes of temperature and they have ways to help themselves stay warm and safe, too. Watch your animals as they move themselves to the warmest places; if snow settles on their coats, then this is okay because the animal is retaining heat. However, if you notice the snow melting on your animal, this can mean they’re in danger of hypothermia due to lost body heat. Make sure you keep tabs on any unhealthy animals so you can separate them from the group and care for them until they’re better, too.

We hope this guide helps you to successfully manage your farm during the winter. Looking for some new equipment? Visit one of our six Washington locations to take a look at our full stock of new and used farm equipment for sale. We also offer a great selection of rental equipment. Bobcat PNW proudly serves the cities of Auburn and Kent, WA.