With a surge in global temperatures, farmers are being urged to put measures in place to ensure the safety of their livestock.

Extreme heat or heat stress can pose several threats to the quality of life of animals and eventually the level of production.

In order to reduce the risk of animals dying from a prolonged exposure to the heat, Our Today has some helpful safety tips to keep your animals safe from the heat.

Beat the heat

• Farmers should ensure that their animals have constant access to cool water. Most times the high temperatures of the days warms up the water quicker.
• Livestock should be provided with cool shade, especially for cattle and small ruminants such as goats and sheep. Therefore, farmers should note that if they want to tie out their animals it should be in a place where they have access to shade.
• Farmers need to put trees in place to provide cool shade areas for the animals. For those who have pastures, it is recommended to use light line fencing and if they are going to cut down trees to establish pastures, it is not recommended to cut down all the trees.
• Additionally, it is encouraged to put in irrigated fodder banks. These are just areas to plant grasses or legumes to provide protein for your animals, so that when the times are dry, there is still a source of fresh forage for your animals.