Midwest producers enjoyed springlike temperatures the past few days, but old man weather decided it was time for one last blast of winter before the first day of spring, March 20. As of 11 a.m., Interstate 70 in Kansas is closed west of Salina to the Colorado border and Interstate 80 in Nebraska is closed from Lincoln to North Platte.
Kristian Rennert, a cattle rancher from Elm Creek, Neb., says extreme winds and a blizzard rolled in late last night after a warm, pleasant day yesterday. He explained the wind and blowing snow challenge he faced getting to his calving facility 2 miles from his house.
“I had to bring a couple calves into a shed to warm them up, and now I need to get them back out with their mothers once the weather improves,” Rennert says.
Rennert and his neighbor manage their Charolais cattle operations together, calving around 400 cows. They are about two-thirds done calving.
“It was absolutely a beautiful day yesterday. The last couple days been phenomenal,” Rennert says. “A couple days ago it was 80 degrees. It’s just amazing that from four o’clock in the afternoon it was 60 some degrees and then two o’clock the next morning it was a full out, raging blizzard. It’s crazy that we can go to such extremes in such a short time.”
Nebraska rancher Kolby Van Newkirk from Oshkosh was also calving Tuesday night in the blizzard.
“We didn’t get much moisture with the storm,” he says. “We maybe got 1 or 2 inches, but since probably 5 p.m. Tuesday night, I would say the sustained wind has been 30 mph plus with gusts of 50 plus.”
The Van Newkirks are located on the southern edge of the Nebraska Sandhills. They started calving the first of February and are about 90% done.
He says the key to the calf survival and success is getting the newborns up and nursing.
“It is important the calves get colostrum and a good start to life,” he adds.
Van Newkirk also stresses the importance of closely monitoring the calves to ensure they are getting up and nursing multiple times per day, especially during and after severe storms.
Along with calving and feeding cows, these swings in weather also affect bull sales. The cold weather snap in February had a negative impact on his bull sale reducing attendance, Rennert says. Likewise, several Kansas and Nebraska bull sales scheduled for today, March 19, have been postponed due to the weather.
Looking ahead, Rennert says he is most concerned about potential health problems in the newborn calves, such as enterotoxemia, scours and pneumonia. They group the pairs into smaller groups of around 50 to better manage their health. While the current temperatures are not extremely cold, the sudden weather change is still a challenge.
“After this storm, and then dealing with the wind, you just have to keep a really close eye on these calves,” Van Newkirk summarizes. “Make sure they’re getting up and sucking, at least twice a day. Keep an eye out for scours or dehydration.”
Rennert is hopeful the weather will improve in the next few days, with temperatures expected to rebound into the 50s and 60s.
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