Farmers Work to Cool Livestock and Chickens in Sweltering Conditions

Livestock and crops are sweltering under high temperatures across much of the U.S., adding to the agriculture industry’s costs and threatening production.

Chicken and pork producers in southern states are using mist and foggers to keep birds and hogs cool. Cattle are eating less feed in the heat, packing on fewer pounds and potentially costing producers money. Ranch hands and workers are tackling tasks before the sun gets too strong, or after dark.

Brad Cotton, a Texas rancher outside of San Antonio, said his cattle have hunkered under shade to stay cool. After a cool and wet spring helped ranchers in the region regrow grass for grazing cattle, the heat is burning up his pastures again, and some of his neighbors are spending more on expensive supplemental feed such as hay. 

“It’s been so hot and dry, people are starting to be concerned there may not be enough hay again,” Cotton said.

The heat also affects his work schedule. Cotton said the goal currently is to get started at 6 a.m. and have everything done outside by 1 p.m. 

Persistent, scorching temperatures have lingered over swaths of the U.S. in recent weeks, with weekslong periods of triple-digit temperatures recorded in places such as Arizona and southern Texas, according to the National Weather Service. Such waves of intense heat have been exacerbated by climate change, with extreme heat events increasing sixfold since the 1980s, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

For the U.S. agriculture sector, this summer’s blasts of heat have accompanied drought in some regions, threatening crops and parching pastures used for grazing. The dryness has led livestock producers to purchase feed that has grown costly over the past year because of poor weather in major growing areas and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

WH Group’s Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the U.S., loads and transports pigs at night or first thing in the morning to avoid the hottest parts of the day, said Ashley DeDecker, the company’s director of production research. Trailers transporting hogs are designed with venting, which can be closed in the winter.

Pigs on Smithfield’s Utah farms, where temperatures recently hit 107 degrees, are kept inside climate-controlled barns at 72 degrees, DeDecker said. Farms in more humid weather are using misters, drippers and fans to keep animals comfortable.

Wayne-Sanderson Farms, the third-largest U.S. chicken processor, uses misters or foggers to keep chickens cool as they wait to enter its processing plants in states such as Mississippi and Georgia, a spokesman said. 

Most modern chicken barns are equipped with fans that can move air over the birds at speeds of more than 600 feet a minute, said Jonathan Moyle, a poultry specialist at the University of Maryland. It feels similar to riding in a car with the windows down, he said. 

Heat makes it harder for cattle to gain weight, as their bodies expend more energy trying to keep cool, costing farmers more in feed and utility costs. Eric Wilkey, president of Arizona Grain, which ships feed to farmers, said cattle eat 10% to 12% less when temperatures rise over 95 degrees for a 24-hour period. When temperatures climb too high, livestock can die.

The heat threatens farm and ranch hands, too. Tom Cannon, a farmer and rancher in Oklahoma, said work on his farm currently starts before the sun is up to keep workers out of the intense heat, a typical practice during July and August, he said.

The National Weather Service is forecasting temperatures in the upper 90s in much of Nebraska in the coming days, which could pose a risk to cattle in feedlots before being shipped to slaughter plants. 

During hot periods, feedlot operators in the state need temperatures to stay in the mid-60s for about five hours at night so the cattle can cool down, said Ryan Stromberger, who runs two feedlots in western Nebraska. About four days in the 90s and nights in the 70s could result in deaths, he said.

High temperatures are expected to spread north in the coming days, and could deepen the impact of the dry conditions already afflicting much of the U.S. breadbasket states. 

Weather forecasts are for two weeks of above-normal temperatures and limited rainfall in agriculture states such as Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas, which could dent crop yields, according to data from Gro Intelligence, a data and analytics company focused on global food and agricultural markets. 

“The upcoming heat wave is not going to be good for the corn, especially since most of the corn is under some level of drought stress,” said Jeffrey Coulter, a University of Minnesota Extension corn agronomist, who advises regional farmers. 

Write to Patrick Thomas at [email protected]