What one dairy farmer is doing to protect her cows from bone-chilling temperatures

Dairy farmer Carrie Mess said she can’t imagine life without cows.

As a farmer who is in the same financial struggle as many other dairy farmers, she wants to keep her livelihood afloat for as long as possible. With frigid temperatures headed this way, she’s taking extra precautions to make sure her cows can make it through the week.

“Oh, absolutely. These girls come before us,” Mess said.

Mess has spent the past few days making sure the cows have enough feed, that their water was heated so it wouldn’t freeze, put the cows in a warm barn that shelters them from the cold and even induced labor on one of her cows who was pregnant.

“Like any new baby, we want to protect them,” Mess said.

Mess said inducing labor isn’t something she normally does. But the cow, who she named Judy, was already a week past her due date. Mess said she induced Judy’s labor to ensure the calves could be born in as warm a climate as possible before the bone-chilling cold temperatures hit hard by the middle of the week.

Mess is also expecting five of her other cows to give birth later this week, and can only hope they don’t give birth when wind chills feel like -60 degrees. Mess is keeping the calves in a separate, warmer barn to ensure they can make it through the cold.

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