This has been the hardest winter we have had in decades. We finally had a break about 10 days ago when it got warm enough to start melting the snow. Then it turned cold again and started to snow again. Yesterday was miserable to say the least... a strong NM wind, snow blowing, reduced visibility, ice covered roads. It has taken a toll on the hay piles and cows. I thought I would be left with a good surplus of hay when spring arrived. Now I am thinking it could be almost gone. I made the mistake of checking the 14 day forecast this morning. I am concerned I might turn into an axe murderer, after reading what the next two weeks holds. It shows a couple days of decent temps, but wind, several days of snow and below normal temps for most of it. This is beyond stupid! I want Al Gore to give back the $10 million he made last year on his speaking tour about global warming. Have you noticed that Al Gore isn't referring to this as global warming any more? Now he refers to this as climate change. I am beginning to believe that he may be right this time... I am thinking we are headed back into an ice age!
I have kept records of when our creek has run for over 30 years. The earliest it has run in that time, was March 13th, and the latest was March 23rd. It is a long way from running yet, and by the forecast it could be well into April before we see it running. I asked a fellow breeder I was talking with this morning, " who will ever believe us when we have April calves with frozen years?"
It could be one of those years that we get those heavy late storms like are happening south of here now. They can be devastating. I remember delivering a load of bulls to a rancher in South Dakota in the late 80s, and a storm like this had rolled in. He had some deep ravines with lots of trees, and the cows and baby calves moved into the ravines for shelter when the storm hit. When it was over the cows had managed to get out, but they found over 700 dead calves that got buried in the storm. I have often thought about this guy... he was buying bulls after this disaster. Most people would have given up. Talk about cowboy fortitude!