Aug. 19, 2010 - As temperatures peak in the triple digits, it's time for livestock owners to pay special attention when caring for and transporting their animals.
Texas AgriLife Extension Service agent for Hardeman County Steven Sparkman believes providing adequate fresh water and cutting down stress on the livestock could keep the heat-related livestock death numbers to a minimum.
"I would say first of all, try to eliminate any kind of stress on the livestock, as far as handling or moving them," he explained. "If you have got to move them or handle them, try to do it early in the morning while it is still cool, or late in the evening, you know after 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. Any day that the heat index is going to be over 100 degrees, if you got a forecast for that, try to schedule it at a different time so not to cause any extra stress on the cattle, the livestock or the producer. Most of our producers, I wouldn't call them elderly, but most of them are older, and sometimes the heat can be as hard on the people as it is on the livestock."
One theory, to eliminate stress while transporting livestock, is to cut down on load size to give the animals more room to move.
"A lot of times when they are transported in the semi-loads, they want them to load the truck so that when they get to the sale barn or the feed lot or whatever, after shrinkage they are still at 47 to 48,000 pounds of livestock," he explained. "So they are going to load it at 50 or 51,000. That causes more stress on the livestock, and this time of year they should load them a little lighter and give them a little more room, especially in the pot, which is the belly of the trailer that gets most of the heat off of the tractor and less air flow.
"If they could limit the number of head the put on each truck, that would eliminate some of stress and heat-related stress," he continued. "With that said, truckers charge by the mile usually. They want to get every head they can, legally, on the truck to try and save money. But I think they would notice a real difference in their shrinkage if, this time a year, they would load them a little bit lighter."
Cattle of any size and age can be affected by heat conditions, especially if they are not fit for transport. If livestock owners make sure their stock is all in good healthy condition before loading, they will be less likely to get a 'downer,' or an animal that gets down in the trailer and is unable to get up on its own.
"You know some cows that they just get exhausted, and they get down, and you can't get them up," he continued. "If the cattle are healthy, as far as 300- or 400-pound calves, versus a 1,000-pound cow, I would say as long as they are healthy, it is probably the same. The cows probably could handle it a little bit better just because of their body capacity. They can shrink a little bit more percentage wise and still have the capacity to survive. Just like humans, adults have a little more fat reserve than kids do, so I would think it would be a similar situation."
When it comes to handling the cattle, if it must be done during daytime hours, Sparkman suggests doing it early in the morning, or later in the evening, to prevent heat-related fatigue or stress on both the livestock and the handlers.
"Try to manage them or handle them in the daytime hours, just not when it is in the heat of the day," he said. "You know, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. would just be a 'no, no' almost unless it was an absolute emergency. Now, once you get them on the truck a lot of people transport them during the day, but as long as they are not physically handling them or pinning them during that heat of the day, I think you are okay."
Immediately once the livestock are off loaded, fresh clean water is a must to replenish the animals.
"(At) most of the feedlots, from unloading, they go ahead and process them in immediately so that they don't have to stand around any longer than they have to," Sparkman said. " I think fresh, clean water is the main thing though. After they have been on this truck ride, you don't want to turn them out into a pasture or a set of pens with stale water, that is not appealing to us or anybody else, they won't like it either."
If possible, shade is preferred for the livestock as well.
"A lot of the pens have shade cloths up or shaded areas and I think that is a plus," he said. "A lot of our pastures have enough trees, not really trees, but brush that they can shade up in the day time. I think that helps too. If you have an open pasture that you have cleared all your brush, then there is no shade, the cattle, they will migrate, if there is only one tree out there and they will pack under there as tight as they can to get in the shade."
Dehydration is the main threat when temperatures reach 100 degrees. Livestock that are not provided with adequate water supply on a constant basis are more susceptible to a heat-related death.
"Days like we have had these last couple of months the biggest threat is, just if your water supply runs out, or if you are not checking them daily to make sure they have water," Sparkman said. "Unless you have got really sick or older cattle that have underlying issues, that fresh water supply is the most important thing. They cannot go very long or very many days without water."
Even the most experienced producers can be at risk for losing livestock during extreme heat conditions.
"We have producers here that are real experienced producers and they get real busy doing something else and before you know it, it has been too many days and they have lost livestock just because their earth tanks have dried up, or their electric pumps or solar pumps have malfunctioned and they just didn't produce any water," Sparkman said. "So, when they go back they are just standing there dry. We have had some pretty significant death losses from that. But, generally if they have fresh water, they can survive the heat -- they are pretty acclimated to it."
