LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Gov. Andy Beshear has declared a state of emergency ahead of the arctic blast forecasted Thursday night. Wind chills are expected to be 10 to 20 below zero and a chance for a flash freeze starting Thursday, livestock producers are taking action to protect their animals throughout the dangerous weather.
One of those farmers is Rootbound Farm co-owner Ben Abell, and he is not taking any chances.
“We have about 220 sheep that we;re going to try and squeeze in here. It’s going to be a pretty tight fit, but the weather is such we have to get them in here. They’re all pregnant,” Abell said.
The team is currently making do with what they have. Rootbound has converted an unused greenhouse and a barn used for storage into temporary shelters for 400 sheep and 600 chickens.
Livestock are at a greater risk because they will not have enough time to adapt with the 30 to 40 degree drop according to Matt Dixon, agricultural meteorologist for the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment.
“We personally have never had any health, or any issue come about because of extreme cold weather but other shepherds have warned us when you have a wet, wet snow, freezing rain with plummeting temperatures, that’s when you get into the danger zone,” Abell said.
Those are unprecedented temperatures Abell has never experienced before.
“If we farmed in Minnesota or Wisconsin or Maine, I imagine we would have housing for animals and that would be part of our normal winter process of bedding our animals down,” Abell said. “We don’t do that, generally speaking, in Kentucky.”
Like any livestock producer, Abell has come prepared. He has created a system to heat the sheep and chickens’ water so that they have access to clean, unfrozen water.
“Mostly it’s keeping them dry and keeping them out of that wind and they’re in a structure and their body heat will kind of generate a nice little micro climate in there of happiness,” Abell said. “There’s dry bedding, put a lot of fresh hay down so there’s not a lot of manure, urine in there with them so it’s fresh bedding and that’s really important.”
It’s all an effort to keep everyone safe and healthy throughout the winter storm.
Abell expects to move his livestock out of the barn and greenhouse either Saturday and Sunday depending on weather.