Video captures cows huddled up to keep watch of their babies during the Manitoba storm

A video taken during Manitoba’s spring storm shows that even during a major blizzard an animal’s first instinct is to care for its young.

Cameron Nykoliation, owner and operator of the NYK Cattle Company, tweeted out a video on Wednesday showing a group of cattle in Douglas, Man., huddled together in the storm to protect their calves.

“That’s first thing this morning when the snow really just started,” he said.

“The cows huddled around. The calves are all in that shelter, out of the wind in dry straw, and the cows are all huddled around the shelters with them.”

Nykoliation explained that he spent the last few days preparing for the storm, rounding up the cow and calf pairs, and setting up shelters for the calves.

“The cows, they’re just worried about where their calves are,” he said.

He noted the cows are just trying to stay out of the wind as best they can and keep an eye on their babies.

Nykoliation described this as “standard herd behaviour.”

“What it does is it blocks the wind for the majority of the group and they can shuffle around from the outside back to the inside and change positions,” he said.

“You see bison do it naturally and cattle do it instinctually as well.”

As for how the animals fare in this type of weather, Nykoliation said the cows can handle it, but the calves can get a chill.

“They get wet. This is wet, gross snow. It’s not a dry, fluffy snow,” he said.

“So they get wet in the wind and it will chill them, so they need shelter.”

Nykoliation added that though to some people the storm may not look severe, the wind is actually quite strong.

“It’s a real storm and I hope everybody can stay safe and come out on the other side of this unscathed,” he said.