Winter storm Neptune has brought in some record breaking cold for the Shenandoah Valley. Overnight temps in single digits with wind chills of -20. I Snow is expected tomorrow. Murphy's law - one of the longhorns has started bagging up and pelvic ligaments relaxing. Calf tonight is unlikely. Almost certainly tomorrow. She's an experienced mom, So I'm not so worried about her needing help to birth the calf. However, I am very concerned about losing the baby to the bitter cold. Provided she gets it dried off and up nursing, should it have a fighting chance with pad hay spread behind the substantial rock breaks in the pasture? If absolutely necessary, we can remove the baby to the machine shed (and maybe mama too) and put heaters on. Should I be counting on having to take the baby indoors, or does mama cow stand a chance of success on her own?

Pad of hay behind the rock wind breaks should be okay, especially if she's an experienced momma.

My calving season used to be Jan to March. The worst thing I ever had to deal with were frostbitten ear and tail tips when I had 2 born during an ice storm.

Most of mine would calve in the grove of cedars and pines, that we have here.

Where I used to work, 2 calving seasons, Jan to March and Aug to Oct. The only problems they/we had up there were due to the cows being kept in pastures and fields that didn't have any windbreaks or run-ins. (NOT my idea).

Wind chill would be the worst; at 10 above they may lose some ear if it gets up and sucks.

Out of the wind on the sunny side of the rocks with some dry hay to lay on will be perfect for a vigorous calf. If calf is a little weak and doesn't jump up and get something warm in its belly you might need to intervene. I put a lot of faith in a powdered colostrum called Colostrix. In really cold weather I like to pen them up so I can find them but that depends on the size of your calving pasture and availability of barns, pens, etc. All that said
cows don't always calve where you wish they would. One more thing, regardless of the cow's temperament now when she has her calf she may not appreciate your good intentions to help. Please be careful and take someone with you. (Not your dog) I have not calved any Longhorns but I understand they are good mothers. Good meaning protective. Some of my Angus cows will try to kill you when they first calve and they are not bluffing. Sometimes you may have to let mother nature take her course. Good Luck. Let us know how it works out.

When I was a young man, 70's or so, seems every year we'd get a winter calf or so.. this was before we had vests pregging cows… it was amazing the amount of times i would go up the creek to feed at 20 below or maybe colder and there would be a new calf with his mother.. granted, they had protection from the wind and usually when it is that cold you seldom get a lot of wind, and the mother was always a good mother, older cow who had raised some calves… we did have bobbed ears and maybe a tail.. you hate that, not only for the suffering of the calf, as also they dock you bad at the sale for them…

My advice, if in doubt keep her where you can keep an eye on her… if you don't have a shed or barn, you can cover the calf with an old coat or even put one on it, front legs thru the sleeves… dry cold doesn't seem to be as harmful as wet cold… good luck.

With what may be up to a foot of snow rolling in, I made the executive decision to move the longhorn mamas into the one acre pen with the 2014 babies. It has a run in shed that we can bed down if needed. The conditions in the pen are also safer for the humans. They're nice cows, but they've got those horns, so we need to be very cautious.

I really appreciate the advice. Most large outfits in the area seem to let their cows calf in the fields. But we typically just don't get weather like this. All physical signs point to imminent calving ( plus she's as wide as a house). But she's eating without a care and pushing the other cattle around. Hoping this baby stays put a little longer....

Catherine ------- let us know how it goes! :)

A few years ago I had small first calf hefier that did 't come into eat with the rest of them. She showed up a week later with her calf running along side. I had figgered her for dead as we had some snow and it was below zero. I had went looking for but couldn't find her.
Trust your cows some.

Nothing yet. She glares at you and turns away when you try to look at her udders, etc,. Can't say I blame her. I was ready to throttle the people who asked me when the baby was coming when I was 39 weeks pregnant, lol

I would rather deal with extreme cold than 20-30 degrees and mud.

That's funny, about 39 weeks along, Catherine. :-)

Good luck with the mama cow. Usually we worry worry worry, and then look back after everything turns out and see we didn't have to have worried so much. ;-)

Saw a longhorn cow calve last year calf was born with head turned back under his shoulder thought he was dead. She run a horn under him picked him up about 4 FT threw him 4 ft to the side he was straight, in a little while he was up and sucking. I knew he would have died if she had not done that because you could not have got withing 30 ft of that calf.