Anti-cold measures for cattle

In recent days, cold air directly affects northern provinces, causing severe cold and cold. Mountain areas where temperatures fall below 1 degree Celsius, showers of snow. Northern mountainous provinces such as Ha Giang and Lao Cai instruct localities to focus on guiding people to keep warm, store food for cattle, limit damage caused by adverse weather.

Anti-malaria measures for cattle and buffaloes are guided by engineers at the Ba Vi Cow and Pasture Research Center - Institute of Livestock.

When buffaloes and cows are cold, farmers need to have timely interventions to help buffaloes and cows overcome the cold spell such as preparing cages, bedding, supplementing food and mineral salts, blocking wind and burning fire. heating, wearing cold jackets and cleaning the barns.

Shielding barns for cattle.

1. Preparing:

Preparing barns: If conditions permit, farmers will build new houses or they can make use of the old stables but they must upgrade to keep the cages to ensure some necessary criteria.

1. The breeding facilities are located in high places, near water sources, in the regional planning.
2. Barn doors face south or southwest to ensure light and ventilation.
3. The barn roof is 3m high, the wall of the cage is from 0.8-1.2m high.
4. People pay attention in the barn, so there is an open space above to keep the wind still circulating. When burning a fire, smoke will follow the open hole, not accumulating toxic gas in the cage, causing the cattle to smell right.
5. The ground is 40-50cm higher than the ground, with a slope of 2-3%.

Preparing food: It is also important to keep food up because only when sufficient feed is provided, will the cattle have enough energy to fight against the cold.

1. Beginning in November, people need to prepare backup food for cattle to use in the next 4 months. Because in winter, natural food for cattle will be much more scarce.
2. With an adult cattle (about 3 quintals), farmers need to prepare an average of 2.5 quintals of refined feed (corn, bran meal, cassava flour .) and 4 quintals of raw food (straw, elephant grass, banana tree, cassava, silage .).

Prevent dry straw in winter.

Prepare anti-cold materials:

1. Straw; grass, banana leaves, dry corn sheath to line the barn floor.
2. Rice husk, firewood for heating.
3. Tarpaulin, plastic bags, grill, cork to crank, cover around the barn.
4. Blankets, jackets, and sacks for making anti-cold jackets. People can use old blankets, jackets, and sacks to make clothes for cattle and buffaloes, but pay attention to using cotton and absorbent materials. Do not use nylon material because this material is not water repellent, water vapor will settle and seep back to make the cattle cold.

2. Monitoring weather:

- People need to regularly monitor the weather forecast to have a plan to prevent and fight against cold and strong cattle. Ideally, the days of cold wind below 15 degrees C should be kept in the barn, should not be grazed.

- In special cases, if it is compulsory to bring cattle out, it must ensure the following requirements:

1. The best time to bring cattle out is around 8 am, when the weather has no drizzle, cold wind.
2. Cattle need to be kept warm by wearing warm clothes before putting them out especially weak and young animals.

3. Implementation measures:

Padded:

1. In winter, to prevent cold for cattle, first of all, they need to pay attention to keep the cattle's coat clean and dry. If the wet coat will reduce insulation and make the cattle more cold. In addition, the need to use straw, dry grass litter for cows in winter will significantly reduce the impact of cold weather on cattle.
2. Depending on the actual conditions, it is possible to spread a layer of bedding, about 5 - 15cm thick. These litter fillers can be kept throughout the winter without cleaning. Attention, every day add additional bedding in the upper, as long as the litter does not get wet or moist.

Wind shield:

1. When covering the barn, people should cover it with tarpaulin or grill plates, the sacks are woven again. However, should not cover, only cover the height of the animal, about 1.8-2m.

Providing food and drink at the barn:

1. On normal days, people feed adult cattle about 25-30kg of raw food and 1.5kg of concentrate, divided into two meals.
2. If on a cold, cold day, people need to adjust the amount of fine food to about 2kg to supplement the energy to help the cattle fight the cold.Note that the cattle will eat raw food first and then feed the refined food and drink the water because if feeding concentrates or drinking water first, the cattle will have a full feeling, using less raw food.

Provide enough food for cattle and buffaloes in cold season

In addition, to increase resistance to cattle, farmers should pay attention to supplementing with multivitamins and mineral salts.

1. Vitamins : People use vitamins according to each instruction.
2. Mix salt water : Mix warm water 37-38 degrees C with salt, concentration of 0.1-0.3% equivalent to 10-30g salt / 10 liters of water.Feeling salty like soup is moderate.

Wear more clothes for cattle.

Burning of cold : Note that when the temperature falls below 12 degrees, it is necessary to apply anti-cold burning method.

1. Using buckets, old pots to store rice husk firewood, wood stubble in the cage to reduce smoke and then put into the barn.
2. When burning a cold fire, people should pay attention to the location.It is necessary to place a fire tray at the end of the cage so that the smoke does not come into the cow's face and keep away from bedding, tarpaulins to prevent fire.

Wear cold clothes: When the temperature is below 12 degrees, wear a cold jacket for cattle.

1. With a shirt, people can use it for 1 cow and buffalo during the season, however, it is not recommended to wear cold jackets for cows and buffaloes all day, in the sunny day (usually after 8am), they should remove their coats to enjoy sunshine. warm.
2. When wearing clothes for cattle, pay attention to the length of the coat from the body to the end of the tail, horizontal enough to fit over the body, the laces tied like buttons attached to the belly.

Cleaning cages: Ensuring clean breeding facilities plays a very important role in helping to limit pathogens for cattle.

1. People need to regularly clean the breeding facilities.Periodically disinfect disinfectants every 2-3 weeks to enhance disinfection hygiene.You can use some antiseptics such as Virkon, HanIotdin, Farm Fluid . When using relatives, pay attention to follow the manufacturer's instructions for use.