July 19, 2006

 

Hot weather taking toll on US cattle

 

 

Hot, humid weather conditions across the US are taking their toll on the nation's cattle, especially those in the Plains states' feedlots where anecdotal reports of increased death and performance losses are growing.

 

Besides mounting death losses, feed consumption is way off, said a Kansas cattle feeder. This means growth and fattening rates are down, which probably is a worse problem than the death losses, he said.

 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's drought monitor shows patches of extreme drought from central Texas north into South Dakota with areas of severe drought surrounding the patches.

 

Temperatures this summer have risen well above 37 deg C, and some in South Dakota have approached 49 deg C. Pierre, the state capital, reached 47 deg C on Saturday.

 

Adding to the direct heat losses to the cattle and other livestock around the Plains have been the burnt pasture conditions and reduced forage production, according to weekly state crop/weather reports from the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

 

In some areas livestock producers were expecting to harvest Conservation Reserve Programme acreage for grass hay because of poor forage conditions, the NASS said.

 

Stock water supplies in many states also were reported to be low.

 

Livestock conditions, however, tended to vary greatly, with the worst conditions, and the most problems, south of the Dakotas, where temperatures haven't been quite as extreme as they were in South Dakota on Saturday, market sources and state livestock officials said.

 

Samuel Holland, South Dakota state veterinarian, said he hadn't had any serious death losses among cattle or hogs reported to him, and he usually would hear if there had been any such losses. During the worst of the heat so far, the humidity has been low, and there have been good breezes, both of which help livestock cope with extreme temperatures, he said.

 

Under such conditions, cattle in feedlots benefit from being sprinkled with water, Holland said. In past years when temperatures have gotten high, most cattle feeders have sprayed their feedlot cattle, and he expected they would do it again this year.

 

But sprinkling cattle can be a bad thing if the humidity is high, Holland said.

 

The Kansas feeder agreed and said under this year's high-humidity, low wind conditions in Kansas, sprinkling would be the worst thing managers could do. It would raise the humidity in the lots and increase stress and death losses.

 

Larry Hollis, extension beef veterinarian at Kansas State University, said pasture cattle that have been on fescue pastures are having problems with the heat. Fescue has a fungus that causes heat intolerance, and the cattle must be moved to a lot and fed hay to detoxify their systems, he said.

 

Hollis said he hadn't heard of significant death losses yet this year, but said the warm nights and continued high humidity soon could change the number of reports he gets.