RADFORD—When the temperatures soar, farm animals lose their appetites and farmers lose income.
"When it’s this hot, animals don’t want to eat—just like humans," said David Coleman, Virginia Farm Bureau Federation grain manager and an Amelia County cattleman. "And when they don’t eat, they don’t put on weight or they don’t produce milk, and farmers lose money."
Nick McNeil, who runs a 140-head commercial cow-calf operation in Montgomery and Pulaski counties, said that when the temperatures are close to 100, his cows would rather stay in the shade than graze in the sun.
"You can’t do anything with them when it gets that hot, because they don’t want to leave the shade," he said. "They don’t graze, and they don’t gain weight. If they don’t gain weight, then you don’t make money."
Bob Harris, a Pittsylvania County farmer who chairs the VFBF Young Farmers Committee, sold his beef cattle last year because of heat and drought conditions. "It was cheaper for me to sell them than to buy feed," he said.
Typically, livestock graze on grass during the summer, and farmers feed them supplemental hay in the winter.
"When there’s no grass, you have to give them supplemental feed, and that puts a hurting on you during the winter," Harris said.
McNeil said the heat isn’t as problematic as a lack of rain. "But when there’s no rain, the heat seems worse."
Dairy cows are affected by the combination of extreme heat and humidity, said Leigh Pemberton, a Hanover County dairyman and member of the VFBF Dairy Advisory Committee. "If the combination of heat and humidity is over 100 total, it puts dairy cows under tremendous stress."
Over the past couple of weeks, Pemberton said, his herd’s milk production has dropped by about 10 percent.
"The heat suppresses their appetites, and when the fuel isn’t going in the milk isn’t coming out," he said. "Fortunately, the heat and humidity are supposed to drop in the next few days, and that will be a tremendous help."
Contact Coleman at 804-290-1105, McNeil at 540-320-6145 or Pemberton at 804-347-2284.