Winter prep looks different on pasture-based farms

WEST CHESTER — When West Fork Farmstead switched from a typical, confined animal feeding operation to a pasture-based cow, pig, chicken and beekeeping farm in 2019, the transition was not a smooth one.

In fact, it was fraught with difficulties, from logistical questions to business planning hiccups to at least one incident which inspired the family to stop raising goats altogether, determining that the species “had no desire to be domesticated.”

Still, Natasha Wilson, who now co-owns the farm with her parents, said the newfound sustainability was worth all the trouble.

“We really wanted to move animals back out onto the land, because we’d taken an interest in how that can improve our soil health and our water health, and the land and the area that we’re taking care of,” she said. “It’s the way to produce food I want to eat, and I feel excited about being able to offer it to people around us, too.”

Among the least intuitive changes was setting up animals for the winter.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines Confined Animal Feeding Operations as ones “where the animals are confined for at least 45 days” of any 12-month period.

The average year West Fork’s corner of the state contains 135 days where temperatures fall below freezing, according to the Iowa Mesonet Data’s Southeast Climate Division at Iowa State.

Adaptation methods vary from one species to the next. All animals need a place to shelter from the wind and cold, without being locked inside. All need access to drinkable, non-frozen water and food every day as well.

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Overall, the family said there were ultimately fewer farm chores in the winter, but that those chores tended to be more troublesome. Feeding cattle a bale of hay requires driving a skid steer; water has to be carried in buckets rather than pumped through a long hose, where it could freeze; eggs require more frequent attention to keep them from freezing.

Preparation for the season begins not at a specific date, but as the temperatures get cold.

“We watch the weather forecast every day, multiple times a day,” said Brian Wilson, Natasha’s father. “If it’s impending cold weather, we’ve got to get ahead of it … confined animals, their temperature in the winter is pretty constant, whereas non-confinement animals are subject to weather extremes.”

COWS

By far the best cold-adapted animals are the cows, thanks to a combination of natural insulation and lots of hair. West Fork’s cattle have access to a south-facing hoop shed year-round, which opens to 60 acres of row crop field-turned-pasture, where they rotate periodically between paddocks throughout the summer.

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In the winter, the family places hay bales in that pasture, where the animals venture outside to eat it. The transition from grazing to hay each fall is gradual.

“At this time of year, they’re still grazing, but they also have some hay, too,” Natasha said. “They’re kind of a mix right now.”

Preparation requires careful tabs on hay. The Wilson family has to cut enough to feed the animals in the months where grass won’t grow, a prospect that’s especially challenging in dry years like 2023.

HOGS

Pigs have a similar winter setup, with a south-facing shed that offers substantial wind protection. It’s insulated by straw bedding and, often, the pigs themselves, who huddle up to stay warm as temperatures drop.

“They will pile up and sleep back there in the sheds,” Natasha said. “I’ve never really seen them struggle. When it’s really cold, we make sure there’s plenty of bedding back there. The water uses ground heat to keep from being frozen, we have to go out and break it open sometimes in the winter.”

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Still, adaptation for the pigs requires careful farm management. The ones raised at West Fork are a different breed from those raised on confinements, better suited for the elements of the outdoors.

Piglets would not survive the winter outdoors, necessitating their arrival on the farm in spring or summer with enough time to fatten up before temperatures drop. The Wilsons also make sure to buy from producers with similarly pasture-based operations, in an effort to make the animals transition easier.

CHICKENS

West Fork’s laying hens roost inside of trailers that control temperatures by opening up in the summer and lowering curtains in the winter. They spend most of their day, however, outside, returning to the shelters only at night, when they’re shut in for protection from predators.

When winter hits, those trailers are simply moved to a spot with decent wind cover, where the birds continue living as normal.

The farm raises meat chickens the same way, but does so only between April and October. While egg-layers have time to grow older and build up healthy fat and feathers to keep warm, meat chickens do not.

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The egg-layers, meanwhile, happily venture outside in all but the coldest temperatures every morning when their doors open up. While they lay fewer eggs on the year’s shortest days, the Wilsons said that was due to sunlight, rather than the weather itself.

“I’ll admit, I was surprised at first that they would choose to go out, and be out basically all the time,” Natasha Wilson said. “If it’s really gross weather, they might choose to stay under the shed, or underneath the trailer.”

BEES

Honey bees have proven fickle to winterize. The Wilsons said they’d previously wrapped insulating material around the hives, but had limited success with that, or with varroa mite treatments, in years past.

The insects offer a learning experience, if nothing else, for the farm. Natasha Wilson said that was a common theme as the family approaches its fifth year of pasture-based production.

“The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know,” she said. “There’s just an infinite number of things to learn … I hopefully will do it the rest of my life, and still be figuring things out, which makes it a pretty cool job.”

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com