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Show Adequate forago in winter important to range cattle Make sure that your range cattle are able to consume enough en-ough forage in cold weather. Dr. John C. Malechek, Utah State University range scientist, scien-tist, said the importance of adequate forage In winter is born out in various research studies that have been report-I report-I ed. ; Cattle can survive even bitterly bit-terly cold weather without appreciable ap-preciable losses of production if they are able to keep a full ... stomach. A fasting cow will begin to shiver when the en-I en-I vironmental temperature drops to about 55 degrees i Fahrenheit. However, if she I Is consuming a maintenance j ration, this temperature will be lowered to around 23 de-; de-; grees. When a cow shivers, she Is using energy to keep warm that could otherwise be ! used for productive purposes. ; High roughage forages, such as winter range grass, arc good survival feeds because of the high heat that results from digesting them. However, ; such forage must not be so unpalatable or of such poor ! quality that cattle refuse to ' eat enough to maintain their . fill. I Cattle on full feed, with dry hair coats and protection from the wind, apparently can withstand temperatures as low as -20 degrees without materially reducing their '. productive efficiency. They can survive much lower tern- peratures. but probably not I without a loss of production. Protection from wind dur- ing cold weather is very Im-' Im-' portant in maintaining top levels of efficiency from feed. For example, at temperatures below SO degrees, a 10 mph wind will Increase by roughly ! 30 percent the amount of en- '-' ' |