Identifying And Managing Heat Stress In Cattle

Jul 14, 2017

By Travis Meteer

As the temperatures and humidity elevate, it is important to understand and manage to prevent heat stress in your cattle herd. Heat stress can lower performance and in severe cases cause death. Here are some recommendations to keep heat stress at a minimum.

Management tips to reduce heat stress:

Ensure that water is clean and plentiful. Cattle will drink more water in times of extreme heat. Here is a chart to determine how much cattle will drink
Avoid handling, processing, or moving cattle. If any of these tasks need to be performed they should be done early in the morning and completed before 10am.
Provide shade to cattle. Shade is best if it is from trees or high clearance shades that allow a breeze to circulate underneath. Buildings or sheds are better than nothing, but they will be less allowing to airflow and air circulation. If cattle are in confinement or barns, ensure adequate ventilation and use fans to move air through and out of the building.
Prevent pests and other stress factors. Fly control can be beneficial to keeping animals cool. More energy and movement to control flies can have a negative relationship with cows keeping cool
Feed at coolest times of the day. This will help keep intake levels up and keep cattle from losing performance.

Heat stress symptoms:

Panting, Open mouths
Drooling
Elevated breathing rate
Restlessness, Extended periods of standing

Source: illinois.edu

Video: Episode 80: Understanding Yardage Costs

Have you ever wondered where your money really goes during the winter-feeding period? Feed costs are easy to identify in a beef cattle operation—but what about the hidden expenses quietly chipping away at your bottom line? That’s where yardage comes in. Yardage is a key factor in managing winter feeding costs for cow-calf operations. In this episode, we explore why yardage matters, how to measure and track it, and how to use those insights to make more informed decisions on your farm.