Every winter during my time on Earth, even though there are numerous signs of global warming there has been a week of deep freeze sometime between Christmas and March.
I will never forget one year about 40 years ago, we spent the entire week between Christmas and New Years trying to keep our old dairy barn warm enough so the cows’ water bowls didn’t freeze. A couple of us spent the first day with a big staple gun and old feed bags plugging every crack, hole and exhaust fan to slow down the icy cold wind from getting in. The rest of the staff went . . .
from one frozen water bowl to the next with hot water getting them thawed out. Once we got it thawed out, the two cows that used it fought over who would drink first for ten minutes until they both quenched their thirst.
By the time we had thawed out 60 water bowls, it was time to start all over again until the barn warmed enough that the water bowls would stay thawed out. Luckily the milk house had a heater in it to keep the water system from freezing but all the milking clusters had to be placed in a big tub of hot water to thaw out before we could milk the cows.
Animals were fed extra corn silage and high energy feeds to help warm them up. One Christmas, we watched a neighbour work on his barn cleaner and stacker all day to get the frozen manure cleaner paddles loosened up so he could clean out his barn.
The ideal milk cow temperature is 42 degrees Fahrenheit and since there are a lot more days in the year when too much heat for the cows is bigger problem than days when it’s too cold, dairy barns today are built to dissipate too much heat as efficiently in summer as possible. They are built with entire walls of curtains that open up in summer, giant fans to move air, even cold water misters to sprinkle cows on hot days. Even though the curtain walls can close up tightly, the roof vents can be closed up and all water lines are buried deep under the barn floor so the large water troughs are always supplied. A constant winter drip valve is installed on each waterer to keep water flowing.
This year the cold snap didn’t arrive until the second week of February and it was a nuisance in even these newly engineered barns. Our barn is a flush barn built four feet lower at one end than the other. We flush the entire floor with recycled water to wash away what the cows expel four or more times per day. After several days of extreme cold, the manure begins to freeze on the floors before it can be flushed away. Since frozen manure is lumpy and not too slippery, the barn is not flushed until inside temperature warms enough to soften the manure. Once melted the barn is flushed again a couple times to clean the floors. At the low north end of the barn where floors are flushed into a deep trough, there is an ice buildup because it is there where the flush is the coldest and slows down. Cross alleys where waterers drip get icy and also have to be chipped or melted with some kind of salt or ice melter.
When I was younger, rock salt, or ice salt were the only available means of melting ice. Both of those salts were corrosive to steel and pock marked cement. Recently we have noticed sand trucks with liquid tanks on them and a liquid salt is often sprayed on roadways before ice accumulates. Liquid salt may contain just NaCl (salt) and water to make brine, or may contain CaCl2 (calcium chloride) which is also used as a dust control on dirt roads. This liquid salt may contain MgCl2 (magnesium chloride), which is very effective but more costly. It might be a mixture of two or more of these salts. Since most road salt is either mined in places like Goderich, Ont., or made from sea water.
Since salt is very heavy and trucking costs can be more than the cost of the salt it must be trucked for many miles, in the prairie provinces, MgCl2 is mined in Saskatchewan and used to salt the winter roads there. CH4No2 (urea nitrogen) can also be used to melt ice but is more commonly used a fertilizer for fields and lawns. Common table salt usually contains iodine and often some sugar.
When you buy salt for cooking or to put in the shaker on the table check to see what it contains. Granular ice melter is usually a mixture of calcium chloride and rock salt but different variations are sold. It is more effective in very cold weather to melt ice. Pet friendly salt is more expensive but usually contains urea and a mix of other salts. Best cure for pets’ feet is to wear booties on the pet when out on the town or wash their paws as soon as you get back.
Some people use pickle juice to melt ice, but the only thing in it to melt ice is the salt. If you like the smell of pickle juice, add more salt and warm water to make it faster acting.
Road salt is very hard on pine and cedar trees when the wind blows dry salt dust from roadways up onto the trees. The chlorine content in all salts makes fields and lawns acidic and encourages dandelion growth. Although urea is more expensive that salt, if it is sprinkled on walkways or driveways, the runoff will help green up the nearby lawn instead of killing it. Urea is also the least harsh on your pet’s feet. Ethylene glycol (commonly called anti freeze) will also melt snow and ice but if a pet or any other animal or child gets it on their paws or hands and licks or ingests it, It may kill them. Be careful how you dispose of antifreeze.
Our medical world claims that we eat too much salt but when it’s time to get a milk cow to stop milking to have a rest before she has her next calf and she is difficult to get stopped milking just cut her off all salt and she will quit milking.
Chris Judd is a farmer in Clarendon on land that has been in his family for generations.
gladcrest@gmail.com
