Page 31 - Aug242023

The Midwest Cattleman · August 24, 2023 · P31
K-State vet shares tips for managing cattle heat stress

Managing heat conditions tially to push feeding times cool them during the heat of actually increase the humid-
is important for cattle com- to later in the evening. the day,” he said. “That can ity at the pen level at that
fort and efficiency. “When we feed cattle, they be disastrous because we can time of day.”
Not only do hot summer will actually increase their
days make people uncomfort- heat load just from digestion
able outdoors, it can also im- for the next 4 to 6 hours,” USING EPDS
pact livestock. Tarpoff said. For heifer matings, Rolf
K-State Research and Ex- He also recommends re- continued from page 26 recommends producers use
tension beef veterinarian ducing the stocking load, ple of the animal on which high-accuracy sires, espe-
A.J. Tarpoff said tempera- which increases spacing and the EPD is calculated. cially related to calving ease.
ture, humidity, wind speed allows for better air circu- Rolf added that if produc- With cows, since they are
and solar radiation all affect lation and easier access to ers want to compare bulls of less prone to calving diffi-
cattle. Not only do producers water. different breeds, one way to culty, she said some produc-
need to watch daytime tem- “During the summer do so is to look at their rank- ers may prefer to take more
peratures, Tarpoff said night- months we want to increase ings within their respective risks with a lower accuracy
time temperatures are just wind speed as much as we breeds. sire who is often younger or
as important in preventing can just to be able to dissi- “Comparing EPDs against a natural service sire.
heat stress. pate some of that heat load,” percentile rankings in their In commercial herds, of-
“They really need about he said. breed is one way to broadly tentimes the cows do not have
six hours of nighttime cool- Another strategy that Tar- evaluate bulls,” Rolf said. EPDs calculated for them,
ing to dissipate the heat load poff recommends is provid- When studying the ani- so Rolf said she puts a lot of
they accumulated during the ing cattle bedding and shade mal’s EPDs, it is also import- focus on the sire’s EPDs.
day,” Tarpoff said. so that animals have a cool ant to note the accuracy of “In commercial operations,
A forecasting tool Tarpoff place to lay. “Cattle have an that data point, Rolf said. you can put a lot of selection
recommends is the Kansas immense shade seeking be- “Accuracy is a risk man- pressure on the sire to make
Mesonet. havior,” he said. agement tool because it gives changes within the herd, es-
To minimize the amount of Tarpoff said water mis- producers an idea of how pecially if replacement heif-
heat stress on the cattle, Tar- ters should only be used in much data is in the EPD cal- ers are being retained from
poff advises producers to fin- the morning and evening for culation and how much that those matings,” she said.
ish all processing or handling evaporative cooling of the number might change over
work with cattle before 10 pen surface. time,” Rolf said.
a.m. on hot days, and poten- “We don’t wet the cattle to