Facilities Maintenance during cold weather.

As we are coming out of a sub zero week here in Minnesota, I thought we would take a look at some important issues that face the facilities side of running a farm in Minnesota. There are two big focuses during cold weather, your livestock and your water. Today we'll look at the water side of the issues.

If you have horses in pasture or in an unheated barn, it's very important to check water with every feed. Buckets in barns and tanks in pastures will probably have heaters in them by now, but sometimes they go out without us knowing.

Another big issue is freezing pipes in your buildings. We all have frost free spickets by now, and we've wrapped the crap out of them with heat tape. The thing that we forget about is the water lines in our buildings and housing. Often times farms will have staffing quarters of some kind, and the water lines are exposed under the building, trailer, or what have you. When temps drop to sub zero, it's a good idea to have one faucet in any building or quarters running a slight stream. The cold water pipes are often the first to freeze, even when they are insulated. By letting water flow through them, you lower the chance of having your pipes bust, and that's a real mess to deal with in this kind of weather.

Tomorrow we'll look at some important issues that face livestock in this weather.