Livestock and heat....Fans or no fans

[littlebitfarm]

Not talking about livestock confined to a barn.

My guys (sheep, horses, and chickens) have shade trees. Also have a big open shed. Fresh water and salt.

My cattle did it right. Belly deep in the creek in the shade. None of the other animals even consider that an option.

I don't put up fans. My theory is it is like standing on a heat vent and trying to cool off. Air temperature is currently 100º.

So what say you? Fans or no fans?

Kathie

[Kmac15]

We lost 4 of our young cornish rocks as of this morning. We set up the fan soon after. I have even thought of setting up one for the sheep.

[Sherry in Iowa]

We have fans on the chickens. Late afternoon..when it's the worst..we set up a sprinkler for the cattle. Some won't use it..and some can't wait for ya to turn it on. The goats lay out in the sun..the only one that got overheated was our buck. That was because he was trying to best three steers and got too hot in the process. I ran water on the ground and he came over and laid down on it. He won't consider getting spritzed with water though..lol.

[plowjockey]

I'd consider fans, for livestock confined indoors only.

Confined outdoor need shade.

All others manage on their own, usially finding a shade tree or barn.

Water is most important.

[nobrabbit]

Our sheep are cooling their heels in a run in shed and the cattle are hanging out in the sun in the pastures.

[GammyAnnie]

I have two fans in my chicken house, but I only run them at night when the gals are locked up. During the day they stay out in the yard in the shade for the most part.

The cattle are like any other summer left out 24/7 now, they have been spending most of their time in the shade.

Annie

[loghome mom]

Our cattle have a choice - outside where there is heavy shade or in the barn with a fan. They seem to prefer the barn and fans during the hottest part of the day and actually butt the fan when they want it on. They will wander out to the pasture in the evening.

[Plowpoint]

We had a livestock expert come in and give us some pretty radical suggestions that made little sense and so we rejected them pretty quickly and dismissed the "expert" as being less than so...

BUT one of his suggestions we did take into consideration, and one we changed. We had fans set up to help ventilate the cows. Being Holsteins they LOVE the cold and it is nearly impossible to get a Holstein cold enough...any ruminant animal really. Holsteins prefer temps at 20 degrees...kind of like as humans we prefer 70 degrees...so we had fans set up in the barn for them on hot days. The "experts" suggestion was to redirect the fans so that it was not blowing on the cows when they were eating their ration at the managers. We have done that and redirected them where they bed down and chew their cud instead.

The majority of our cows never see the light of day because they are controlled carefully for milk production, and as spoiled as they are inside, they hate going out anyway. But for the dry cows and heifers who do graze a little, they head for the shade on hot days, or on our farm...for the high ground where the wind always blows.

[ChickadeeL]

I lost four Cornish Cross broilers yesterday due to the heat. I was so bummed. Today they have fans on them. I used three fans for the 80 chickens. I also put ice cubes in their water and frozen water bottles where they lay, to cool them off. And I set up our garden hose to a mister nozzle to cool down the air as it enters their building. It worked remarkably well. Even my kids noticed how much cooler it was. But I could kick myself for not doing it yesterday; I really thought they were okay. Four in one day is a lot to lose. They look much happier today, thankfully, even though it was a lot hotter out. Our heat index was 107 today. Yuck. I didn't sleep well for thinking about those darn chickens and felt so bad but I guess that's how we learn on the farm. Now I know.