OTTAWA LAKE, MI (WTOL) - It’s important to keep your pets inside during this weather, but for farmers, bringing their livestock inside isn’t always the answer.
Eric Ford's cows wade through a bit more straw than normal, it's there so they can stay warm.
"Starting last weekend started to go through more straw. Most the time the spend their time outside until the wind starts blowing really hard," Ford said.
Ford has also been adding some extra calories into his cattle's diets.
"A week or 10 days we've been getting some of our higher quality hay into them so they can have enough high quality calories in them. That's kind of their furnace, their belly," Ford said.
Even then, he doesn't expect them to stay inside.
“Normal winter days, I’ll come down here after a snow and I’ll see them all by the pine trees with snow on their backs. That shows how good insulators they are. The snow’s not melting off of them because inside their fur and hide is pretty thick and they’re pretty hardy critters,” Ford said.