With heat indices climbing into the triple digits in cattle feeding areas, there have been some accounts of death losses. Unconfirmed reports have an estimated 10,000 head in Kansas and an undetermined amount in Nebraska. Those losses are attributed to heat stress and concerns will continue to grow as the heat wave persists.
Cattle losses like these are devastating for producers and happen even though they do everything in their power to manage heat stress in their operations. Dr. Dan Thomson of Iowa State University is a veterinarian and leading animal health and well-being expert. He says the heat and humidity combined to raise the thermal heat index for those cattle and created the perfect storm.
“During these bouts of extreme heat the cattle can’t dissipate the heat at night because there’s not night cooling and so this perfect storm hits. No different than a tornado hitting a cattle feeding facility or a derecho or whatever and we have these natural disasters,” Thomson explains.
The heat wave is expected to continue for several days. Thomson says producers will need to continue to be on high alert to try to manage that heat stress.
“There’s mitigation strategies that we place, whether its nutrition, strategies for increasing water tank space and decreasing movement of cattle, all these things we’re doing on a day to day basis.” Thomson says. Feedlot managers and their crews have been putting themselves in danger to save cattle in the extreme weather conditions, hauling water and providing bedding for the cattle, he adds. If not, there could have been higher mortality rates.
Cattle producers work hard to keep cattle comfortable so they perform at their highest level, but most importantly, for their well-being.
