Management Strategies To Take on Heat Stress In Cattle, Insight From OSU’s Megan Rolf

As fall arrives, temperatures are getting cooler. Cattle producers won’t have to worry about heat stress for several more months. Oklahoma State University assistant professor Dr. Megan Rolf said in the Southern Plains it’s always important to know how to manage heat stress, because it’s going to come back. 

 

 

Cattle producers have access to several different management interventions. For those with a feedlot, she recommends providing cattle with shade structures, shading waters and altering feeding times. Rolf said Dr. Terry Mader of the University of Nebraska has done a lot of research on feedlot cattle. By shifting feeding times, she said that can shift the metabolic load for that animal to a different time, such as at a cooler time of the day.

 

“Cause, heat stress is all about that heat coming into that animal from the environment and the heat they produce,” Rolf said. “In order to avoid heat stress, we need to make sure they can dissipate more heat than they are taking in and they are producing.”

 

For producers with cattle out on pasture range, Rolf recommends making sure cattle have access to shade with trees and providing shade over waters. 

 

OSU is also looking at water efficiency in cattle. The million dollar research project has been funded through the US Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Rolf said the project aims to get a better handle on the quantity of water that cattle drink and the characteristics of the individual animal that determine water intake.