Wintering Out

[Duncan MacIntyre]

Yes the old "up and under" technique is a favourite of Dexters. Shilton Pontius could lift 5 stobs in a row with the rylock still attached and make his exit under it. And only yesterday Burnside Magic Jester, also 100% Woodmagic blood, did it before my very eyes and has had to be confined to the byre.

Do you think there is a general rule, if they are after grass they go under, if they are after heifers they go over? Pontius could clear rylock with barb on top without leaving a hair on it, dragged ignominiously from a field of holstein heifers three years in a row.

Duncan

[Rob R]

We have one cow, Rosewood Ginger, with really upswept horns which she can use to graze several feet the other side of an electric fence. The trouble is that she really tests any frayed wires and tonight they'd bust the springy gate wires. So rather than them being hungry and ready to move to the other field, which involved almost a mile of walking (including some calves just hours old) through long grass they were actually like a bunch of red & black eggs, already full of grass and reluctant to follow so they had to be driven! (One of the calves, which had literally just dried off, did get a lift on the tractor though).

[nuttalls]

I hhave tried both wintered in and out, and the fitter better ones wer the ones wintered out, but dontlike it wen I,m tucked in bed and the weather is severe jean

[Louisa Gidney]

My male cattle have to outwinter, and sometimes maiden heifers, as there's only room in the barn for the cows.
There are two lean-to shelters on the barn, so the stock have shelter from the wind in any direction and can be fed from a door that is not opening into the wind. Baby heifers have a paddock with a calf hutch.
The most important thing is a dry bed at all times.
Dry cold is fine, I've left the cows out in hard frost until calving was imminent. It's wet and wind that are the killers and what the stock need protection from.

[Builth]

Our Cattle winter out at 1000- 1400 ft, 18 cattle on 35 sloping acres with patches of natural woodland for shelter, free draining most of the time.
We usually don't need to put hay out until late January, we know they want food when they start hanging about the yard gate instead of grazing.
Only calves come in for winter everyone else is out & it has worked well for years.
We also make sure there are salt licks & mineral blocks available all year.

[Rob R]

Uplands do seem more suited to out wintering than here in the vales - when you've got fall it's a lot easier than when you are the fall. If it rains on the North Yorkshire Moors their cattle are fine, but down here they'd be swimming.