Heat Index of 117*....how do the animals handle that?

Hello friend,

   What a week weather wise. A roller coaster of rain and high humidity made for a scorcher today. With lots of piglets on the ground, we had to delay castration and their big move to the back of the property until next week. We built a holding pen for the pigs this week to be able to round up all the piglets (if you’ve been to the farm lately, you know that’s a whole lotta piglets). They stayed nice and cool in their wallow they created from all the rain. Once the pigs are moved out of the front pasture, we will reseed the area they were last in. We will have some work to do on that paddock as they overstayed their welcome there.

   Broilers have their misters keeping them nice and cool inside their schooners. The laying hens get shade cloth strung up around their houses to provide more shade and the comfort of foraging even in the heat of the day. Egg production has dropped for the summer, so if you are looking for eggs-make sure to reserve them ahead of time.

  Cattle are moved into partial shade. We like to see them still up and grazing most of the day. When they lay down to chew their cud in the shade, we know they are content and cool.

 We are heading into our short summer ”downtime”. We do not like to have chicks in the brooders and  broilers in the field come mid July to August. We raise birds all winter long to avoid the heat of the Texas sun. As we roll into the heat of the summer, we look forward to this slow down.

  To beat the heat, we transition to early mornings with a big mid-day break. We want the animals ready with water, shade, and fresh forage before the heat sets in.

Let us know if we missed anything-but that is what summer looks like for us. Oh, and lots of projects to wrap up before a busy fall.

This is the paddock the pigs are currently in(taken about 2 days after they came into it). We will have to do a before, during, and after. That way, you can see what keeping pigs in a spot for too long can do to the land, but also the growth that can come from having pigs on said land.