Photo by Sally Y. Hart

 

As high temperatures have been in the 90’s for the past week, it may seem easy to jump in the pool or turn on air conditioning.

But how does livestock stay cool in the summer heat? Keota Veterinarian Dr. Jay Swanstrom says farmers do most of their working with animals early in the morning while temperatures are typically cooler. Swanstrom advises how to keep animals safe from the heat, “Livestock are really no different than humans. As long as you can get into shade and have the air movement, and not being strenuous, they can handle it okay as long as they get some air movement. It’s when the humidity gets really high, the temperature gets high and there’s no air movement, so they can’t sweat and cool their body down, is when it gets really life-threatening.”

Swanstrom says so far the heat has been manageable, “Late July, early August, our humidity a lot of times is up there that high because of the humidity from our crops that are growing around. You know right now our crops are really small so they don’t have a lot of evaporation coming off our corn plants.”

If they are facing heat stroke, Swanstrom advises bringing your animal’s body temperature down by cooling their extremities, not their head or chest, with a damp towel.