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Cold, wet conditions troubling spring calves

A central Missouri farmer says the swings in temperature and conditions have been tough on his spring born calves.

“This wet, cold snow on them, just the cold weather, we’re just so up and down [and] we need to plane out and level out,” Nathan Alpers said. “We’ll be checking them, but I suspect we’ll have a few respiratory pneumonia issues.”

Alpers tells Brownfield recent cold spikes are also creating feeding concerns.

“It’s just really hard for our grass,” he said. “We’ve still got a couple of herds locked up that we’re trying to feed hay as long as we can. This really hurting the grass, it’s going to set it back.”

Alpers said cold stretches are especially difficult to deal with this time of year because his cattle are already losing their winter coats.