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Monitoring livestock during hot weather

John Grimes, Extension beef coordinator at Ohio State University says with the heat index hovering around 100 degrees plus this week comes the need to pay particular attention to livestock’s increased water consumption.

“Water consumption definitely goes up with the higher temperatures, especially if you’ve got lactating animals, beef or dairy cattle, they are going to consume quite a bit more water when we get these actual temperatures over 90 degrees,” said Grimes.

And the Extension beef coordinator says common sense tells us that we need to step up monitoring livestock.

“There are stresses out there, and again, it depends on the production unit, they’re lactating, or if they are dry there are some different things we can do,” Grimes said. “But ramp up your management, the examination of your animals and again water and shade would be the two key things this week.”

Audio: John Grimes, Ohio State University (1:35 MP3)