The Heatwave Process

Its been a hot week with temperatures averaging over 40 degrease (the hottest heatwave in 100 years!) and I  wanted to share the process with our animals here at Life On The Land when the weather becomes this hot and how we operate. The order of attention for care from lowest to highest is: Cattle, Pigs, Chickens.

It is always at this time of year our choice for mainly Brahman and Brahman X cattle seems justified.  I see european type breeds ducking for cover while our cows hardly deviate from their normal grazing practice.  However we make sure there is plenty of shade and water available and check on their progress a couple of times a day.

Our Berkshire pigs have truly been amazing and certainly are a wonderful animal to raise outdoors.  Again, they are kept in an area that has all day shade and we make sure they have plenty of water.  One thing in particular to provide pigs during these high temperatures is water for them to wallow in and cover themselves with mud.  I love explaining this to kids as a special type of 'Pig Sunscreen' to protect them from getting sunburn.

Our chickens need the most care in this heat.  We raise their shelters up so that we gain as much airflow through the area as possible.  Water lines are constantly checked as well as feed levels.  Then with micro sprayers, we spray water over the chickens at certain intervals - in this weather we spray them every 10 to 15 minutes.

As you can imagine, it's all hands on deck for the Life On The Land team at the moment.  A cool changed is expected late tomorrow - can't wait!  :)