Impact of Weather on Feedlot Management - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Impact of Weather on Feedlot Management

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Consider changing livestock handling and shipping plans. Heat stress signals ... cold stress not the time to change diet composition. Management considerations ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Impact of Weather on Feedlot Management


1
Impact of Weatheron Feedlot Management
2
Adverse Weather Environment Stressors In
Feedlot Cattle
  • Hot weather
  • Cold weather

3
HOT WEATHER
  • What is considered too hot for feedlot cattle?
  • How do we recognize an animal suffering from heat
    stress?
  • What actions can we take to prevent heat stress?
  • Why do we care?

4
Effective Ambient Temperature
  • Air temperature
  • Solar radiation
  • Air movement
  • Contact surfaces
  • Precipitation

5
HOT WEATHER
  • THI Index
  • temperature/humidity
  • origin Thom 1959
  • first developed for humans
  • Formula
  • Temp (0.55 (0.55 x (RH/100))) x (Temp 58)

6
THI INDEX CATEGORIES
  • Alert (THI 75-78)
  • Additional precautions, prepare for ? T
  • Danger (THI 79-83)
  • Dangerous to confined livestock, additional
    measures should be taken to avoid severe losses
  • Emergency (THI 84gt)
  • Consider changing livestock handling and
    shipping plans

7
Heat stress signals
  • Body alignment with solar radiation
  • Shade seeking
  • Refusal to lie down
  • Reduced feed intake
  • Crowding around water source
  • Agitation and restlessness
  • Reduced or ceased rumination
  • Bunching
  • Open mouthed labored breathing
  • Inability to move
  • Collapse, convulsions and coma
  • Physiological failure and death

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Prevention is ALWAYS better
  • Which cattle are most at risk?
  • Provide cattle most susceptible to heat stress
    with east sloping lots and lots with most shade
  • Monitor effective temperature temperature,
    humidity, wind solar radiation
  • Maintenance requirement increases
  • Rapid shallow panting - 7
  • Open-mouth panting - 11 to 25

15
Prevention is ALWAYS better
  • Take precautions under extreme conditions
  • additional water
  • sprinkling
  • mounds
  • shade

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Mean ambient temperature (degrees celsius),
relative humidity (percentage) and
temperature-humidity index.
Time (hours)
20
Rectal temperature of steers exposed to hot
conditions.
21
Research Reports on SprinklersUsed when air
temp. above 80 F
22
Sprinkling
  • When should you begin sprinkling?
  • How much water should you use?
  • Where is the best place for the sprinkler?
  • What type of sprinkler

23
Mounds
  • Why use mounds?
  • Water application
  • How much is too much
  • When to apply

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Shade
  • Reduces exposure to solar radiation
  • reduce heat load
  • Construction considerations
  • Orientation
  • Space
  • Height
  • Roof

26
Shade - construction
  • Orientation
  • East/west ground cool under shade, greater
    percentage shadow under shade than north/south
  • North/south less effective, minimize mud

27
Shade - construction
  • Space
  • 20 to 40 sq. ft. per animal dont overcrowd
  • Height
  • 8 to 14 ft. keep in mind air movement
  • Roof effective is reflective
  • white colored, galvanized or aluminum materials

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Shade - summary
  • Enhance natural ventilation
  • - site should have minimal trees
  • - minimal buildings or obstructions within 50
    ft. on all sides
  • Whether benefits from shade justify cost depends
    on the year and degree of heat stress
  • Insurance Peformance benefits are bonus

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July 29, 1999 Heat Wave
  • Death loss in NE 5,000 hd
  • Death loss in SW Iowa 100 hd
  • Why the difference?
  • Emergency plan in place
  • Memory of 1995
  • Wind speed on July 29, 1999
  • Acclimation of cattle week of July 25, 1999

36
July 11 12, 1995
  • High Temperatures
  • High Humidity
  • No Wind
  • Deadly Combination

37
July 11 12, 1995
  • 13 West Central Iowa counties
  • Market 323,300 HD/year
  • Estimates 50 on feed 161,650 HD
  • 3750 HD dead
  • 2.32 death loss
  • 2.8 M cattle losses
  • 28.0 M production losses

38
Weather History
  • Combination of heat humidity of July 11, 1995
    was matched only 5 previous times in 101 years of
    Iowa weather history
  • Aug. 3, 1930
  • Aug. 6, 1918
  • Aug. 17, 1913
  • July 26, 1894
  • July 27, 1894

39
Weather Conditions July 11 12
  • High 104 F
  • 50 Relative Humidity
  • Calm winds after 3 to 5 P.M.
  • No cloud cover
  • Predicted high low 90s

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Cold Weather
  • What is too cold?
  • Response to cold stress
  • What can we do to reduce cold stress

45
Lower Critical Temps
Newborn pigs, single
Newborn pigs, group
1040F
Hogs, growing
860F
Pregnant sows Newborn calf
680F
Lactating sow
500F
110-440lb growing calf
320F
Yearling cattle, pasture
140F
Growing cattle, confined
-40F
Finishing Cattle
-220F
-400F
46
Lower Critical Temps
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Performance responses
  • Maintenance requirements increase gt24
  • Feed intake increases
  • Poorer gains and feed efficiency
  • gains depressed by ½ lb or more in Jan
  • one lb more feed required per lb of gain

49
Physiological responses
  • Maintaining core body temperature
  • Bunching together
  • Increase in intake
  • Blood flow
  • away from extremeties
  • less heat loss

50
Remember
  • Whatever is an advantage in cold stress is a
    disadvantage in heat stress
  • Pens that are best for light calves in the winter
    are not for finished black-hided cattle in the
    summer
  • Wind is bad in the winter and is good in the
    summer

51
Management considerations
  • Keep snow out of the bunks
  • Top priority
  • Snow not removed cattle turn it to ice
  • Reduced/erratic intake
  • Feed trapped in snow/ice
  • Difficult to obtain accurate bunk read

52
Management considerations
  • Scrape ice and snow off the apron
  • Build up on concrete
  • Difficult for cattle to access bunk
  • Reduced intake
  • Reduced performance

53
Management considerations
  • Dont limit water
  • Water intake correlated to feed intake
  • Water freezing at night and not during the day
  • Cattle may want to drink at night
  • Competition for water space
  • Reduced performance

54
Water intake (1000lb BW)
Note Ingesting ice or snow requires more heat
55
Management considerations
  • Dont overfeed
  • Keep bunks clean and the feed fresh
  • Dont get ahead of the cattle
  • Intake fluctuations reduced
  • Dont use feeds/commodities poor quality
  • Cattle can adapt to different/novel feeds
  • Moldy, musty or unpalatable (? intake)
  • Periods of cold stress not the time to change
    diet composition

56
Management considerations
  • Avoid feeds freezing in the bunk
  • Silage backgrounding diets
  • Wet finishing rations
  • Multiple feeding
  • ? DM content by adding drier feeds
  • Additional roughage
  • How much?
  • 1-3 increase (particularly diets 7-9 roughage)

57
Shelters
  • Allow cattle to get out of the wind and provide
    some protection
  • Ensure that your shelter does not trap snow
  • Whatever helps in winter is potential risk in
    summer

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Open front shed during blizzard Jan 98
61
Cold weather - Summary
  • Most problems are storm related
  • Beware cattle tend to tank up prior to and
    during early part of storm
  • Multiple feeding
  • Increase roughage (storm ration)
  • Most vulnerable cattle in protected pens
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