South Poll cattle are a heat-tolerant breed. They’re a new breed and one of the few that are strictly an American created one. To learn more about the South Poll breed and their history, read more at the official South Poll website.
Are South Poll cattle able to handle Ohio’s winter weather?
Back to that heat-tolerant trait. What’s that mean for raising the cattle in areas with colder climates? Ohio is moderate, really, with relatively mild winters. By no means, do we have consistent winter weather but typically Ohio sees 0 degrees maybe a few times and we might have up to a few feet of snow during a blizzard. Overall, our winters are mild which means cattle can handle our weather.
But when we first purchased our South Poll herd from Tennessee, we weren’t sure if our winters would bother the cows too much or not. The first winter we had was barely considered a true winter because it was in the 40’s, wet and rainy nearly the entire season. The South Poll cattle handled it well but that was expected once the Ohio winter proved to be more of a spring.
The following winter was the normal for Ohio. A few weeks of teens and single digit temperatures, snow and ice. The cows barely noticed! Our lowest percentage of South Polls at the time were ½ with several that were purebred. It didn’t seem to matter the percentage, they easily survived the Ohio winter without a problem. Most grew in a shaggy winter coat, even if it was only an inch or so longer than their typical summer coats. Our slickest coated cow whose winter coat is barely noticeable never skipped a bit in grazing or health.
We practiced both hay bale unrolling and hay ring feeding where appropriate and we managed the herd throughout the winter by leaving them in larger sacrifice lots. We rotated them twice in these larger lots to reduce the animal impact on the soil as the snow and ice melted and created mud. We were prepared to move them to a third sacrifice lot that winter but luckily, the wet weather refroze. Typical Ohio weather!
Anyway, this year, a blizzard rolled through and Ohio saw unprecedented wind chill factors – up to -30 for several days in a row. It felt like we were going through our first real winter with the South Poll cows once more as we waited to see what would happen with such a heat-tolerant breed.
But again, the South Poll breed proved to be excellent and easily adaptable to our Ohio winter weather. Coats were covered in ice, wind chill was dangerous to be in, but the cows grazed any grass that was growing above the light snow dusting and the ice before making their way to the hay.
We did use one of our larger paddocks that has a ravine with tree cover for the herd since our pastures don’t offer much wind breaks except for in this spot. But the South Polls, even the younger ones, would come out of their hiding spots to come out and graze.
So, do the heat-tolerant South Poll breed tolerate the Ohio winters?
It’s a resounding yes for us.
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