CATTLE. 103 



Winter Protection for Cattle. There can be no question that the most profitable 

 and economical method of cattle management in winter, for the main portion of our 

 country, is to provide warm shelter and protection against storms and the inclemency of the 

 weather. Where cattle are exposed to the cold weather during the winter season, a much 

 larger proportion of food is required to keep up the animal heat, than where a comfortable 

 shelter is provided, since food is required to sustain animal heat, and always in proportion to 

 the intensity of the cold; and setting entirely aside all considerations respecting the cruelty 

 to animals of exposing them to the cold storms of winter, it seems to us that any farmer will 

 find it more profitable in a term of years to provide good barns to shelter his stock, than to 

 furnish the extra amount of food required to warm the cattle, and keep them in good 

 condition. 



With the modern conveniences for handling fodder in barns, th e labor of doing this is 

 not much greater than feeding them in the open fields, while all the waste and inconvenience 

 attending the latter would be avoided. It has been estimated that the difference in the 

 amount of food required to maintain cattle in warm, comfortable stables in winter, as compared 

 with the amount of food necessary to produce the same weight in the open air, is as sixteen 

 to twenty-eight; that is, sixteen pounds of corn would be required for the former, while 

 twenty-eight pounds would be necessary for the latter. This may seem a large allowance to 

 make in food for the difference in temperature between warm stables and the open air, but we 

 believe if the experiment were carefully tested, it would be found none too large, when all 

 the conditions were taken into consideration. 



The temperature alone is not the only consideration; when animals are out in the storm 

 with no protection except the windward side of a hay stack, or when obliged to stand 

 shivering for hours in the fence corners, .and the hair gets saturated to the skin with melted 

 snow or rain; in such cases there is not only the temperature to withstand, but an extra 

 amount of heat must be supplied from the body to evaporate the moisture. A western 

 writer of note states that the storms of winter in that section are so trying to animals exposed 

 to them, that many farmers have found it impossible to produce any gain with one half bushel 

 of corn fed per day to each steer during a stormy February and March. 



Young cattle that cannot be kept growing during the winter, and all others that cannot 

 be kept in good condition will have to make up the deficiency afterwards in a larger 

 proportionate length of time and amount of food to accomplish it, and such a system of 

 management is consequently not attended with as large profits to the farmer as where the 

 growth of the young animal is constantly kept up, and stock are kept in good condition. 

 It not/ unfrequently happens that calves that are left out during the winter exposed to the 

 cold, seem no larger, if as large, in the spring than they did at the beginning of the winter, 

 and will require several months to make up what they have lost during that time, while they 

 will never wholly recover from the effects of having their growth arrested at this growing 

 period, but will be in a measure dwarfed and stunted. 



We have already treated at such length in the department of Farm Buildings, the 

 importance of properly constructed stables, that anything additional in this connection would 

 seem a repetition; suffice it to say that stables should always be so constructed that the walls 

 cannot be penetrated by wind and snow. Stables, the walls of which have cracks that will 

 admit a constant draft upon animals confined within them, or that in snow storms will permit 

 the snow to cover their backs, are little, if any, better than none; since if out in the open 

 field cattle would be able to walk about and keep up a circulation by exercise, while tied in 

 the stable they are unable to do this. Stables should also be so ventilated that pure air may 

 be supplied to the animals, and the bad air conducted away without exposing them to a 

 current. 



All stock, when stabled, should have some exercise every day in the open air if the 



