do you have shade for your cattle?

[Richardin52]

It's been in the 90's here in Maine the last couple days. On top of that the humidity has been in the 60's and 70's. Day before yesterday my cows didn't have a lot of shade in the cell they were in and were complaining, When I road up to look at them one looked hotter than the rest and was panting like a dog, they had a full tank of water so I hooked up a hose and sprayed them down. They loved that.

Yesterday it was going to be even hotter so I let them have enough room in the next cell so they could get plenty of shade and figured I would leave them there two days before I moved them because of the size of the cell. This morning it was pretty well gone over so I moved them. It's cooled down a little today but the humidity is even higher.

Most of my pastures have some shade but not all.

How about you guys down south? What do you do for shade?

 

[M5farm]

My cows stay in the woods through the middle of the day most of the time. I see them grazing the west side of the trees in the morning and the east side in the afternoon. I go in the house and turn on the AC if I get hot. our humidity this morning is a 84%.

 

[TexasBred]

I've got scattered post oak trees. That's all they get even when in excess of 100.

 

[skyhightree1]

I have pastures with woods and random trees through out and they mostly stay in the woods all day or sit under some shade trees

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I have tree's and some woods, but I also have some ear in most of my cows so I don't see them in the wood or under trees all day.

 

[Dave]

Lots of cattle in the Great Basin where the only shade is to crawl in under sagebrush. They seem to do just fine. Part of it is just like us it is what they are use to. Most but no tall of my pastures have a tree or two. But I see them laying in the shade chewing their cud on a 60 degree day too.

 

[NMVaquero]

Ours will shade up in the hot part of the day, if there is shade under a sage brush.
They don't have problems if there isn't shade and will go for a swim in the ponds.

 

[tdarden3k]

I am in the process of clearing clear cut timber land for pastures now and I am designing shade right into it. 2 years ago we had 100 degree weather for over 80 straight days and almost 100 total. .... yep ...no bout adout it !!!!!

 

[muleskinner]

Just to let you know on a research project done a West Virginia University in around the mid 80's with stockers. They found out that there was no difference on gains on animals that had shade verses animals that did not have shade. But I prefer my cows to have shade.

 

[Atgreene]

All of mine were panting last week in the heat. I expect that from the highlands, suprised that the Herefords were also so heated. I opened up a pasture with a small drainage so they could stand in the mud, they seem to enjoy that. :nod:

 

[inyati13]

I have shade trees along the creek. Big trees, white and red oak, sycamore, maple, ash, walnut, honey locust, etc.

 

[John SD]

None of my pastures have any natural shade. I've often wondered if it would be cost effective to construct some kind of permanent shelter near watering locations. Something relatively cheap with a flat steel roof 12' - 15' off the ground might make a difference.

Seems someone at NAT posted about a portable shade that can be folded up and moved to multiple locations. I'll see if I can find that thread and post a link to it here.

Edit: Found the thread! :banana: :banana: :banana:

http://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread ... 1#M1313764