There is Old
Wives Ranchers Tale that if the winter is tough and cold the calves born in the spring will be larger than normal, i.e. larger than if the winter was mild and warm, and you will have more calving difficulties. The theory behind it being that more of a cows energy is directed inward when it is cold to keep the vital functions operating and therefore the fetus gets more nourishment and grows larger. It's always made sense to me so I always bought this explanation.
Guess what, it's right!!
Severity Of Winter And Impact On Calf Birth Weights
Results indicate that cold temperatures influenced calf birth weight. Weather cannot be controlled; however, with below average winter temperatures, larger birth weight calves and more calving difficulty may be expected in the spring.
Sometimes common sense and Old Ranchers Tales are right.
In an area where nothing was known, medicine had to draw on social lore. Virginia Johnson
Just this morning I heard a story on the news about a "folktale" in Asia that water gets hot before a tsnunami, and how a fisherman saved his entire village by coming in shouting that the water is hot! run!
. . . and how now we are learning to use science instead of folktales to forecast such things.
Um, excuse me? The "folktale" seems to have worked just fine?