When we first moved to the farm, there was only a small pole barn. At 30 foot by 40 foot and with a cement floor, we decided to use half of it for hay storage and placed large, rubber mats on the other end for the horse stalls to go on. That meant, there was no room for cattle to lodge.
Because we mainly had Highlands at the time, their heavy, long coats did mean they were more comfortable outdoors during the winter. However, heavy, long coats don't keep cattle out of the mud and Ohio winters are often a spectacle of mud.
To spare our cattle's hooves, we found this used wedding tent online at less than half the price of a new one. That was a nice deal, but then we needed to find a way to make sure the cattle didn't rub up against the metal posts or rope ties. A string of electric wire (which you can see in the photo above) just inside of the metal posts fixed that.
What was really nice was the continual addition of bedding (old hay or straw) eventually elevated the area underneath the tent so that it was never muddy and, as an added bonus, the deep bedding created a warmth that kept the cattle comfortable even on the cold nights.
A great perk was that that spring was a very wet one. However, as you can see in the picture below, the cattle never had to worry about the mud then either.
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