Farmers Blog
Cow Pat Thermometer
Thursday February 9th 2012
With the temperature dropping below freezing our farmer Andy reveals that years of working with cows has left him with a special talent...
"It's important to know how cold it has been in the night.
At the start of my day on a cold one I like to know the temperature. I need to know this because many
parts of the farm infrastructure are dependant on running water in pipes and of course pipes freeze and
water is essential to all the animals at the farm.
How frozen a cow pat is, will tell me the temperature.
I used to have an outdoor thermometer but over time they break or stop working properly. This method of knowing how cold it has been is far more reliable.
Having worked with cattle all my life I know what comes out the rear end, the consistency etc. Now I can only use this process with nice, firm, well built cow pats-none of the runny kind are any good. I use the end of my welly boot and depending on how resistant the pat is I can roughly work out the temperature. Although, when the temp is below -8°C the test is void as the cow pat is completely solid and it does’nt matter how cold it gets."
