A powerful winter storm caused some states in the South to experience snow, ice, and below-freezing temperatures.
Megan and Kenny Harris, who own a farm in Huntsville, Arkansas, had to think fast about protecting their calves.
According to ABC News, the couple raises 280 cattle and now are experiencing calving season. During the frigid temperatures, they had 47 newborns and expected another 95 in several weeks.
Some of the calves were born in temperatures from below zero to over 10 degrees. Since the couple did not have enough heat in the barn, they have brought 15 calves into their home for the next couple of days.
“It’s been so cold,” Megan Harris said. “I couldn’t just send them back out there like that. They were just weaker than the other ones.”
Over the weekend, Megan was busy saving a newborn.
“When he was born, his mom had him in the snow. So he was about froze,” Megan said. She warmed him and fed him a substitute for colostrum, the first milk his mother would have given him. “I’ve spent my morning trying to bring him back to life.”
Since the cold snap, seven calves have already died, and Kenny Harris is convinced that “had we not brought in those 15 over the past few weeks, we’d have 22 dead.”
Kenny said that keeping the animals alive in these conditions is expensive. He said that extra hay, food, and fuel costs more than $2,500.
“It’s work daylight till dark,” he said. With his cattle spread out on nearby farms, he is in constant motion, “cutting ice two or three times a day because they can’t get water,” and delivering hay and feed for the animals “’cause that’s the only way they can make heat.”
Kenny and Megan are relieved to know that the temperatures are getting warmer in the next couple of weeks.
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