It’s not groundbreaking news that farmers are forever at the mercy of Mother Nature — regardless of the tundra-like mornings milking cows or soaking wet days where fieldwork can only be a wishful thought. It’s no wonder the weather forecast is anticipated so much in farming households.
Last week, amid frigid temperatures and dangerously cold windchills, it felt like we were suiting up for battle every time we headed out the door to work and do chores. Late-night and early morning checks for frozen cattle waterers became routine while we bedded pens down with fresh, cozy cornstalks and straw in excess to keep our animals warm and protected from the elements.
While those types of extra chores are pretty standard, what many don’t realize is the burden of the extreme cold when dealing with manure storage. We scrape the freestall barns out where we house our milk cows twice each day. Usually, our big tire scrapers do the job nicely because they work as a squeegee to move the sloppy manure out of the cows’ way; however, when temperatures in the barn keep dipping below zero, skid loader buckets with sharp cutting edges are essential to prevent the buildup of manure until it thaws.
Every time we clean out the barns on those cold days, we take extra time to get as much manure pried away from frozen doorways and entrances and into the pits and other manure storage areas. Whatever you leave behind will freeze and be too difficult to remove until temperatures rise. This can present challenges as this can quickly snowball into impassable buildup which can lead to difficulty shutting barn doors. When temperatures do occasionally make their way back into double digits, you can bet we’re having a hay day prying up any buildup that we can — it’s a ridiculous and oddly satisfying task that only a farmer would be giddy about.
We are so fortunate (at least in the Midwest) that this week was met with much warmer temperatures. This allowed us to reset and clean up some of these manure areas before another cold spell likely makes its return. Here’s to a much warmer week with more pleasant days spent outside.
The author dairy farms with her parents and brother near Hawkeye, Iowa. The family milks approximately 300 head of grade Holstein cows at Windsor Valley Dairy LLC — split half and half between a double-eight parallel milking parlor and four robotic milking units. In the spring of 2020, Molly decided to take a leap and fully embrace her love for the industry by returning full time to her family’s dairy.
