Farming in cold climate

Question

Hi,

What types of farming can one do in areas that have cold winters and snow? Can you raise cattle, poultry or pigs in this climate? Can you have a dairy farm in this climate? Can you breed and raise horses? If you're a farmer please explain if this is firstly possible and secondly how it works. Thanks!

For example: if you lived in Quebec, Alberta, BC

Answer 1

Mountainous regions are well known for growing cattle, sheep and goats. I know for a fact that some of the best milk comes from mountainous regions in my country. So yes, you can raise cattle and you can have a dairy farm. Yes, you can raise horses, but you need to take some extra care of them.

As for farming: potatoes mostly.

Answer 2

cattle can be raised anywhere grass grows.  

Answer 3

Farming in a cold climate for me would be hard, there is no place to spray waste water.  I know you can deep drill and inject waste into the ground, but its alot harder all the way around, also the heating of barns in a super cold climate, in todays market would take any profit you had away, I spent over 500$ a week in the colder months here in NC, to keep the farrowing ( baby pig / and mommys birthing place ) warm..Its ALOT of work to farm in any climate, but cold and or rain just adds to the work...

Answer 4

You can raise most kinds of livestock in areas like you describe. You need enough area to feed them through the warm weather and also to grow enough feed to store to get them through the winter. You also have to provide shelter from the winter weather. As far as crops, they must be something that can mature in the shorter growing season. Most vegetables, wheat, rape oil seed, etc are a few examples.

Answer 5

I live in the high mountain desert of Idaho, at 4700+ feet elivation.  We've had winter temperatures as low at negative 68 degrees (F) for two solid weeks.  Normal winter temperatures never make it above negative 30 degrees (F).

We have two seasons here, winter, and summer.  Winter is 9 months long.  We have a scant 90 frost free days to grow crops.  This year has been unusually cold, we were still getting snow/frost in June!

Chickens do not do well in this type of really cold climate.  Too much frostbite, and loss of legs, and combs.

Before I go on with the answer, I should state that I'm a permaculture farmer, and do not believe in keeping animals locked in barns, and keeping them artificially warm, or lighted.  All of my livestock has access to pastures/free range, and three sided shelters.

Horses and cattle do very well here.  Calving season is a busy time for ranchers, since it's usually still snowing, and bitterly cold when calves are born.  Foals are timed for when the weather is warmer, or people have their mares foal in barns.

Sheep do well in this climate.  Again, lambing time is a very busy time of year.  Many of the sheep ranchers have very long barns the pregnant ewes are sheltered in, until they give birth.  Otherwise the tiny newborn lambs would freeze to the ground at birth.

I raise meat goats.  Goats kid twice a year.  During the winter kidding, I'll be outside checking for newborn kids every two hours around the clock, for 6-8 weeks strait.  If newborn babies get properly dried off, and their mothers first milk in their tummies, they are suprisingly hardy.  I do end up loosing some ears on the kids to frostbite.

Pigs can be raised here, but people do not do so in great numbers.  Pigs need three sided shelters with deep bedding, so they do not get frostbite.

There are a LOT of dairy farms in this part of Idaho.  Those ultra huge dairy farms, with thousands of dairy cows.  Idaho makes most of the powdered milk for the U.S., that's why we have so many dairy farms.

Dairy cows are never on pasture anymore.  Instead their feed is brought to them.  With all those cows livinging in a huge barn, and sharing body heat, they don't have any problems.  The main problem is to keep them cool in the summer.  Most of the dairy barns are quiet tall, and completely open on at least two sides.  Overheating of the cows is a bigger problem than them becoming too cold.

I also raise meat rabbits.  Adult rabbits do very well in the extreme cold.  Newborn litters can die, due to the cold.  Rabbit mothers do not "sit" on their babies, like a mother hen.  A rabbit mother will only visit her nest box a couple of times a day, for just a few minutes to nurse the babies.  The main problem is keeping the rabbit's water bottles defrosted.

Farming livestock in brutally cold climates has very serrious drawbacks.  Your feed bill is usually huge.  It makes it very, very difficult to compete with farmers raising stock in more moderate climates with more access to pasture.

On the other hand, we have very, very few problems with many pest animals.  Fleas virtually do not exsist here.  Worms do not become a problem in stock, as they cannot gain a foothold in pastures that freeze several feet down every year.

We have plenty of mosquitoes, with West Nile being the highest in the Nation (U.S.) last year.

This climate is perfect for growing potatoes.  Potatoes love to be hot during the day, and cool off at night.  

Other big crops we grow around here, are sugar beets, alfalfa hay, wheat, and barley.

Raising livestock in a cold area is difficult.  The price of alfalfa hay went up to over $200 a ton last year.  The year before it was $80 a ton.  Lots of ranchers went out of business, or let their livestock starve to death over the winter (mostly horses were allowed to starve to death).

~Garnet

Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years