Fall usually cools down leading into winter, shorter days, cold and snow. Mid-January brings a bit of a thaw then back cold and snow till March starts thawing for maple season, mud season and April showers.

But this year‘s weather, however, has been crazy with wide ranging swings in temperature.

It is extremely difficult to manage the temperature in the cow barns. We try to keep my barns at 50 degrees F, an ideal temperature for cows. I have exhaust fans to remove the moisture and carbon dioxide which pulls in fresh air from windows, doors and hay chutes, adjusting them to keep 50 degrees F and have no drafts on animals. The problem is to manage the moisture, particularly the humidity because cattle are very susceptible to pneumonia.

While modern barns have automatic temperature and humidity sensors, tunnel ventilation and/or curtains that raise or lower as needed — with nights at 20 degrees F, and fluctuations from 0 to 10 degrees F below in evening rising to 35 degrees F or warmer in morning — it is hard to set the barn up for a proper temperature and humidity. The average body temperature of a milk producing cow is 101 degrees F. I have 80 mature cows in my barn — that is a lot of heat.

Another issue that concerns local farmers is the hay, winter wheat and winter rye crop.

With this season’s limited snow cover — when the sun comes out it warms the plant up. If the weather is warm enough, it can break the plant’s dormancy, and the plant starts its growth. When cold air follows, the subsequent temperature drop can severely stunt the plant’s growth or cause a winter or frost kill of the plant entirely.

Alfalfa has a long tap root and when that melted puddle of snow freezes at night it expands popping the crown off its root. Early in the spring, farmers will be out checking fields for brown spots showing winter kill. We will quickly do frost seeding, spreading the seed with the cold night and warm days the ground opens and closes in freeze thaw cycle and with the spring rains the seed will germinate. If there is too much winter kill a farmer will have to replant the whole field.

Another concern with the many warm ups or mini mud seasons that when we are out spreading our daily manure we are rutting up our fields. Later when harvesting hay, those ruts are like potholes in our field.

Maple season is impacted by this weather too. Late January, we had a very warm spell and sap started to run. Some maple producers made some early maple syrup but a problem is the buds or little shell for the leaves started to bloom and then we dropped below 0 degrees F. Maple producers are a little worried about how the usual March sugaring season will go and how will the trees will leaf out.

While we’ve all had to deal with the crazy weather, its has some significant impacts for farmers beyond just the typical nuisances we all face. This is leaving all of us farmers a bit concerned about this coming spring.