Help Livestock Beat the Heat

We are in the middle of summer with temperatures routinely in the 90’s.  I thought that I would remind you to look for ways you can help livestock be less stressed in high heat conditions.

Heat stress on our livestock is a is a critically important aspect of our production that we have to control. Heat stress accounts for million’s of dollars in productivity losses to our livestock industry every year, just due to the decreases in performance, decreases in fertility and the potential of mortality.

Now that the heat is on, it is important to have a plan in place and to plan ahead to make sure when there is a readily made plan to put into action.

Here are some basic rules to remember:

 

Make plenty of water available. Water consumption is critical during the summer months. Once the temperature rises to about 90 degrees and during the hot summer, animals consume water at five times their dry matter intake.. So, it is important that that you have a good quality (clean, cool and fresh) and quantity water source that's available to them at all times, This is where maintained of water throughs, availability and flow can become important.

 

Make shade Available. Natural shade is preferred and cost effective if available. When utilizing sunshades, the animals should have about 20 square feet per head of shade access at any given time of the day.  The use of buildings work when proper ventilation exists.

 

Incorporate Fans, Misters and other devices when appropriate. Air movement can increase livestock comfort greatly and over the years dairies and other operations have effectively shown the value of incorporating other devices.

 

Modify the pen surface. If you don't have the opportunity to have sunshade, you can adapt the pen surface. Remember, a simple dirt floor during the hot summer months can become very warm due to the solar radiation, sometimes up to140 degrees or more.  Putting down a barrier of dry bedding can actually drop the surface temperature of that pen floor by a measurable amount.  Some research points to 15-25 degrees.

 

Consider Modifying Feeding Times for confined Livestock.  Change feeding schedule’s to the cooler parts of the day

 

Maximize nighttime cooling.  Livestock accumulate heat during the day, and they dissipate it during the nighttime cooling hours. Provide adequate grazing space, room to separate at the feed bunk.  DM intake can be greater at night or early morning hours according to some studies. It can take 6-8 hours of nighttime cooling to be able to dissipate the heat load that they picked up during the day.

 

For more information contact cchilds@vt.edu or your County Extension agent.