Cassie LeMaster 0:00

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Extension Connection Podcast. I'm your host this week, Cassie Lemaster, Livestock, Equine, and Forage Agent for NC State Extension in Polk County. Last month, I talked about drought management strategies, and since then, we've started having more regular rainstorms here in the west. So this time, I'm gonna discuss some tips for helping you and your horses, your livestock through the summer heat. Maybe then we'll get a little break from the ninety-degree days. When summer heat and humidity spikes combine, it's not just uncomfortable, it's a production risk. Today, I'm breaking down actionable science-backed strategies to help your horses, your cattle, and livestock, your pastures, and just as importantly, you make it through the summer heat in one piece. Let's dive in. Let's start with the animals. When it comes to livestock, the number to keep your eye on isn't just the thermometer, it's the THI, or the temperature humidity index. Livestock can handle a hot day if it's dry, but when you couple ninety-degree temperatures with seventy percent humidity, their natural ability to cool down via sweating or panting drops drastically. For our cattle producers, remember that black-hide cattle absorb significantly more solar radiation. They're gonna feel that heat load much faster than lighter colored stock. Here's your immediate extreme heat checklist for livestock. Number one, water is king, but flow is queen. A twelve hundred-pound nursing cow needs upwards of twenty-five to thirty gallons of water a day in hot weather. But here's the trap. Do your float valves and pipelines have the recharge rate to keep up when the whole herd wants to drink at three PM? Check your pressure and clean those tanks. Algae-filled water reduces intake, which directly worsens heat stress and dehydration risk. Shade. If you use portable shade structures or if your animals are using a barn for shade, ensure that you have at least forty square feet of shade per adult animal. If they are crowded too tightly under a small canopy, they block the airflow and trap each other's body heat, making things worse. Number three, shift your chore clock. If you need to work cattle, whether it's vaccinating, loading, or moving pastures, be sure that you have that work wrapped up by ten AM. Better yet, if it can wait till a cooler day, then let it wait. Working livestock increases their core body temperature by several degrees, and when temperatures start to soar, they can't dump that extra heat. Now let's pivot to our equine friends. Horses are incredibly efficient at producing sweat, primarily cooling themselves through evaporation, but that means they lose massive amounts of essential salts when it's hot. If you're managing horses this summer, keep these rules in mind. The one-fifty rule. Here is a quick math trick. Add the temperature in Fahrenheit to the relative humidity percentage. If the total is under a hundred and thirty, the horse's cooling system works great. If it's over a hundred and fifty, like a ninety-degree day with sixty-five percent humidity, use caution. If that number tops a hundred and eighty, do not ride or work the horse. Their natural cooling mechanism simply cannot keep up. If you have a horse showing signs of heat stress, their nostrils are flared, they're lethargic, get them into the shade and use continuous cold water bathing. Douse the horse with cool water for at least ten minutes. Now, you might have heard an old myth that if you don't scrape the water off, it acts like an insulating blanket and cooks the horse. This is simply not true. Water left on the skin will still help them cool via evaporation, but bathing in a continuous stream of cool water will help cool the animal the fastest. Electrolytes. Don't just rely on a plain white salt block. Many of our horses don't lick them enough, especially when they're actively losing these electrolytes by sweating. Top-dress a balanced equine electrolyte onto their feed, or you can mix it in their water. If you do this, though, always make sure they have a second bucket of plain water available. Okay, now let's talk about what's under your animals' feet, your pastures. When the heat turns up, and even when the rain stops, it's tempting to look at a thinning pasture and think, "Well, I need to graze it down before it burns up anyways." Don't do this. Overgrazing during a heat wave is a recipe for pasture bankruptcy, and we're already looking at a slim hay crop this year. Cool season grasses like tall fescue and orchard grass completely shut down their growth when temperatures cross eighty-five degrees. If you graze those plants down close to the dirt, you expose the bare soil to direct sunlight. That bakes the soil biology, destroys moisture retention, and kills the root system. If your pastures are drying up and stopping growth, it's time to pull the animals off and put them into a designated sacrifice lot. Feed them stored hay or silage if you have cows. Protect your residual stubble height by keeping it at least four inches, five or six is better. This acts like an umbrella, shading the soil and keeping the soil temperature up to ten degrees cooler and ensuring that the forage doesn't immediately curl and shrivel up on hot days. We're gonna wrap up today's episode talking about the most important asset on the entire operation, and that is you. Farmers, ranchers, and horse owners are famous for taking immaculate care of their animals while completely ignoring their own health. But heat exhaustion and heat stroke are incredibly dangerous, and they sneak up on you fast. Be sure to know the symptoms of each. The symptoms of heat exhaustion include heavy sweating, dizziness, nausea, cool clammy skin, and a rapid pulse. You need to take immediate action, move to air condition, drink plenty of water, apply cool cloths in order to cool your body down. Now, the key symptoms of a heat stroke include no sweating, red, hot, dry skin, confusion, fainting, and a body temperature over a hundred and three. This is a medical emergency. You need to call nine one one immediately and work to cool the person down as quickly as possible. Be sure that you hydrate before you're thirsty. Mix in some sports drinks or electrolyte packets with your water intake. Wear light-colored clothing and a wide-brimmed hat. A farm can't run if you're in the hospital. Take a break. Sit in the truck with the AC running if you need to. That's it for this week's episode of the Extension Connection. Tune in on Wednesdays for new episodes.