Introduction
If you hang around farmers and ranchers long enough, you’ll realize the most frequent topic of conversation is the weather, particularly this time of year as our summers are becoming increasingly hotter and drier. In recognition of this, Oregon OSHA passed some new rules in 2022 to provide for health and safety measures related to heat and wildfire smoke. But it’s not just humans that are affected, our livestock need considerations, too, especially in areas that experience extreme heat or high levels of particulate matter from nearby fires.
Cool and Plentiful Water Supply
Some of the most important steps you can take are straightforward, like ensuring your animals have access to shade and clean water. However, when it comes to water there are extra steps you can take. Make sure to check the water temperature, especially if it is supplied by a hose and kept topped off by a float valve. Water that is sitting in a hose can become scalding hot and can even leach contaminants out of the hose. In this situation, you may be better off manually filling a water trough a couple of times a day until the worst of the heat has passed. Installing misters near the water trough is another possibility – it not only cools the air and the animals, but it keeps a little bit of water moving through the hose so the water is not just sitting in the hose baking in the sun. Fans are also a good option for animals like chickens and dairy cows that might be spending more time inside a building.
Feed and Fermentation Considerations
Those steps are not much different than what you would do to keep yourself cool and hydrated, but there are some specific things that apply to some livestock that may not be so obvious. Ruminant animals like cattle, goats, and sheep, rely on fermentation in their rumen to extract protein out of grasses and other forages. One of the byproducts of fermentation is heat, so the timing of feed intake can either increase or decrease their comfort levels. If you are providing supplemental feed, you could do that very early in the morning and late in the evening to limit the amount of fermentation that happens in the middle of the day. If you have wooly animals like sheep, llamas, or alpacas, make sure they are sheared before the summer heat arrives. Just imagine working outside with a thick wool coat on when it’s 110!
Minerals Supplementation (Think Electrolytes)
Proper mineral supplementation is always an important part of any livestock farm plan, but access to minerals is perhaps most important during times of heat stress. The salty mineral blend not only encourages them to drink more water, but when animals pant (or sweat in the case of horses and donkeys) they are losing minerals and fluids at an increased rate and it is vitally important to keep those topped up to ensure their immune systems and other bodily functions have the needed resilience.
Smoke and Fires
Many of the same principles apply when dealing with thick smoke, though it may be even more important to limit their physical activity so they are not breathing harder and inhaling more airborne contaminants. You may even temporarily suspend your grazing program to feed hay in one area during extreme smoke events. With mega fires becoming a normal part of Oregon summers, it is clear that no area of the state is immune from risk, so having a plan of what to do if you have to evacuate is critical and that will be covered in part 2 of this post (coming soon).