Spring Blizzard

Spring blizzards have been common, late and severe this year. They are hard on cows, birds and us. 

A few weeks ago, within a twelve hour period we had, in order:  A warm day, mostly sunny, with the temperature almost to 70°, then thunderstorms moved through with heavy rain and lightning. Very strong winds, strong enough to blow two power poles over, usher in an extremely nasty cold front. Then tornado warnings. Then enough small soft hail fell to cover the ground. It didn't melt, but froze as temperatures plummeted. Then the winds shifted out of the north. Finally, snow, driven by the blizzard force winds, piled on top of the frozen hail crust. Temps dropped close to the single digits. All that within twelve hours.

Two in the morning checking cows, I have to watch the ditch and fence as I drive because I can't see the road in the whiteout blown snow. I startle up a gangly Blue Heron who had taken cover in the plum bushes. It struggles to fly away in the strong gale, flailing like a bed sheet hung on a clothesline.

Two calves died. Laid out flat, covered in ice, frozen to the ground. 

Storms like this, that get the calves thoroughly soaking wet before it gets cold and snowy are the worst. The calves struggle to stay warm. They nurse too often, which can make them sick; and the cold taxes their immune system. I've doctored three with antibiotics and antitoxin.  

 School was canceled for Ella, and Maret stayed home. We watched Starlings take cover on the porch and hide in the firewood pile. One was bleeding and ill, and died there sometime later.

Maret's Grandfather Marvin used to say, "Make sure you still have half your hay on the first of April". These blizzards are why. You go through a enormous amount of feed during these storms. Every morning I roll out grass bales so the calves have a dry place to lay, and every evening I put out more bales for feed. 

Chores and calving are exhausting during these blizzards. First, I am wearing twenty pounds of heavy clothes and muck boots. Second, the corrals are hard to walk through. The corrals that were soft dirt, are now a thick amalgam of partially frozen mud churned together with all the leftover hay. Next, large areas are puddled in water. Now top this with a crust of hail. Now top that with snow that is drifted thick in places. 

Middle of the night, walking through the heavies, I notice the Meadowlarks have come into the corral and are nestled down inside deep cow footprints. This is odd because Meadowlarks are shy birds; they are never in the corrals. They are trying to hide from the wind. Trying to use the heat in the ground to stay alive. 

Two calves were born during this storm. Both times I found the calves wet and new, shivering. Both times I had to pick up the eighty pound limp calf and carry it, walking backwards through the muck, a hundred yards or so into the calving barn. I walk backwards so the cow, angry and bellowing, can see and sniff the calf. If I turn around, the calf seems to disappear to the momma, and she goes back to where she last saw it. 

Maret's mother, Gail, finds over a dozen dead Robins in her yard after the storm. I find a few to weak to fly and easily catch them. I set them on a sunny windowsill to warm up.

I rub the cold calves vigorously with some old towels to dry them as much as possible. Then I put them in my calf warmer- a super insulated box with two heat lamps hanging overhead. The front has clear curtain so the momma can look in and see her kid. Usually, two hours has them dry and toasty warm, and after giving them a bottle of warm colostrum they can go back with mom. One of these calves has already lost most of its ears from frostbite.

After the blizzard the corrals fill up with ponds and puddles of snowmelt.  Water the color of thick black coffee from decades of tannins leached from hay and cowshit. And swimming in them is a half dozen ducks, taking a rest from their long migration.

Comments

[lex]

That was a hard one to read. Can't even imagine what it was like to actually be in it. Amazing photos, especially the frozen calves. Such eerie beauty.

[Jim]

wow - unbelievable - thanks for sharing....