Summer Livestock Management Basics

Keep your animals comfortable when the heat’s on with tips for the ultimate summer livestock management.

By Callene Rapp
Updated on June 30, 2022
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by Debralee Wiseberg

Last summer’s heat wave left many of us with an increased appreciation for cooler weather. If you, like us, had the good fortune to spend July and August under that little weather novelty known as the “heat dome,” 2011 was an exercise in creatively keeping cool. Humans have air conditioning, swimming pools, and ice cream shops to help us keep cool, but what about livestock? How do they adapt and take care of themselves during such extreme heat? And what summer livestock-management techniques can we use to help?

How animals keep cool in high heat

Like humans, some livestock tolerate heat better than others, and each species has adaptive strategies that help it manage the high temperatures. Sheep and goats tend to tolerate hot weather quite well, especially fat-tailed breeds of sheep such as the Karakul. The wool coat, which to us looks profoundly uncomfortable during the summer months, provides wonderful insulation against extreme temperature; the heat never makes it down to the sheep’s skin. Shearing in the spring before the onset of hot weather will prevent the sheep from experiencing sunburn, which would be a risk if they were sheared in the heat of the summer.

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