– Jordan Penrose, OSU Extension Educator, Gallia County (originally published in The Ohio Cattleman, Winter 2023)
Here in Ohio, winter can vary from one part of the state to the other. If I were to ask you, what are a couple things that we can think of as farmers that comes along with winter? Answers will probably be similar like cold and snow, but another one is likely mud.
In early November you may have thought some mud would be nice because of how dry the fall was. But nevertheless, when it gets cold out and the temperature is hanging around freezing, are you really wanting to deal with mud?
Last year on my family’s farm, we were fortunate that the ground remained frozen for much of the winter. Our pasture management made feeding cattle easier compared to other years. As we get closer to winter, we may get a better handle on what mother nature is going to throw at us, but it is almost impossible to predict what will come our way in the terms of the weather. So, what do we do to prepare for winter when it is so hard to predict what mother nature is going to give us? You can come up with a few different plans that may be useful to you. Every farm is going to be different in the way they can handle their pastures for the winter.
One of the first things that should be considered is Continue reading