Extreme cold creates welfare challenges for livestock across species, requiring proactive management to prevent hypothermia, frostbite, and energy deficit.
Cold stress in livestock is often underappreciated compared to heat stress, yet neonatal hypothermia in particular causes significant welfare harm and mortality at scale. Newborn lambs have minimal energy reserves and are born wet into potentially freezing conditions — survival depends on rapid drying, shelter access, and colostrum intake within the first hours of life. Dairy cattle in severe cold increase maintenance energy requirements substantially; failure to increase feed provision leads to negative energy balance and associated welfare consequences. Frostbite of teats causes lasting udder damage and pain. Frozen water supplies — whether troughs or pipes — can cause rapid dehydration. Proactive winter welfare planning — reviewing shelter provision, feed planning, lambing facilities, and water supply frost protection — prevents predictable welfare harm.