It is Hot here....Where I live we will hit 100 degrees quite a few days from now through Mid August.
I have worked in feedlots and always thought it was horrible having pens of fat cattle this time of year. They sit there uncomfortable with no shade in many places. It s a challenge to thier health, lungs and gain......
I am small enough to do something about this....This new place I am at has a lot going for it, even if it is on a small scale...
Several weeks ago I set sprinklers up..There are some small Rusian olives in the pen the calves huddle up around. The sprinklers helped as well. However, watching them they were still huffing a lot, but much better off....TYhe sprinklers were creating real muddy areas that I just do not like.
The pen is next to the corrals and the corrals have huge trees along one side. The dirt has some moistness just under the surface there, so it is maybe 15 degrees or so cooler in the corrals....
The challenge is digging post holes through rock to hang a gate. I worked through the 100 degree heat, drinking lots of water and at a "Southern Summer Day pace"...The heat did not bother me....Some of it was restretching fence, some of it was blocking of the squeeze chute in the corrals and setting some gates in there as well so the cattle don't get into things they should not, LOL.
As I worked, I did not want the nosey bovines rummaging though my tools if my back was turned, so I went and set the corrals up first and turned them in there.... 6 hours later, I was done with the gate and fence...First gate I have ever put in the middle of a fenceline BTW, LOL, but it just worked out that way. I think they are smart enough to go through it to find shade, LOL......
Anyways, I went to open things up and those cattle were all lounging around in the shade, chewing thier cud and content as could be! I am looking forward to see them gain rather than hold through this heat and to not be fighting the challenged cardio and respiratory systems you can see this time of year with Fat Cattle,
PPRM
I have worked in feedlots and always thought it was horrible having pens of fat cattle this time of year. They sit there uncomfortable with no shade in many places. It s a challenge to thier health, lungs and gain......
I am small enough to do something about this....This new place I am at has a lot going for it, even if it is on a small scale...
Several weeks ago I set sprinklers up..There are some small Rusian olives in the pen the calves huddle up around. The sprinklers helped as well. However, watching them they were still huffing a lot, but much better off....TYhe sprinklers were creating real muddy areas that I just do not like.
The pen is next to the corrals and the corrals have huge trees along one side. The dirt has some moistness just under the surface there, so it is maybe 15 degrees or so cooler in the corrals....
The challenge is digging post holes through rock to hang a gate. I worked through the 100 degree heat, drinking lots of water and at a "Southern Summer Day pace"...The heat did not bother me....Some of it was restretching fence, some of it was blocking of the squeeze chute in the corrals and setting some gates in there as well so the cattle don't get into things they should not, LOL.
As I worked, I did not want the nosey bovines rummaging though my tools if my back was turned, so I went and set the corrals up first and turned them in there.... 6 hours later, I was done with the gate and fence...First gate I have ever put in the middle of a fenceline BTW, LOL, but it just worked out that way. I think they are smart enough to go through it to find shade, LOL......
Anyways, I went to open things up and those cattle were all lounging around in the shade, chewing thier cud and content as could be! I am looking forward to see them gain rather than hold through this heat and to not be fighting the challenged cardio and respiratory systems you can see this time of year with Fat Cattle,
PPRM