Animal Warmth

Baby, it’s cold outside…so let’s stay bundled up in the airtight house and out of the wind. Good advice for humans? Yes! But what about livestock? The answer is out of the wind but not necessarily airtight.

 

Listen carefully to the advice from Agricultural expert Bill Halfman.

“The main thing is with our livestock, if we can have a windbreak for them where they can get out of the wind, we have to be careful that we don’t put them in a building that’s too airtight , otherwise we’ll get too much moisture buildup and we can accidentally kill them with kindness where they might get pneumonia or problems like that where there’s too much moisture build-up in the air. If we can keep them dry and out of the wind, plenty of bedding and make sure they have access to water, and in some cases up their ration just a little bit because they’re burning more energy trying to stay warm than they would be under milder weather conditions.”

 

Your animal’s coat is also important.

 

(Halfman) “What you want is a clean hair coat because that traps air and air is the insulating layer in the animal’s coat and that’s why they have that extra dense winter hair coat is to trap more air. If that’s matted down and wet, it’s like you and I going outside in the cold weather with a wet sweatshirt and it’s not going to do any good at all and that’s what the animal faces when it’s out there with a wet haircoat.”