Cattle need shade on warm through hot days. With most of our cattle being half Highland, they especially need the comfort of shade. Highland cattle, with their longer than normal coats, get warm very easily. That means that, if we want them to remain comfortable, the shade of a tree isn’t enough sometimes.
As a general rule for us, once the temperatures reach eighty, the cattle need shade. Either with a shade mobile or a tree. When the temperatures reach ninety-one or higher, it’s time to put them in the woods.
I love putting the cattle in the woods during hot spells. Though I’ve never checked it with a thermometer, it generally feels close to ten degrees cooler under the comfort of a woods’ canopy. Yes, the cattle could be just fine with a shade mobile, but I spoil my animals. I admit it!
This has, also, been a wonderful way for us to keep the woods from becoming overgrown as they eat it down or trample the plants they aren’t interested in eating. If the high heat lasts long enough that they’ve eaten all that is available in the woods, we have two options:
- Keep them in the woods during the day and move them to the pasture at night
- Supplement with hay
Usually, the ninety-one degree or higher temperatures only last for a few days at a time where our farm is located. Once it’s back in the eighties, they’re back on the pasture.
Of course, keeping animals in the woods during hot spells isn’t only for cattle:
