How to cope with heat

 

Research continues to show that proactive heat management can significantly reduce production losses during the hottest months of the year. 

For chickens, heat waves such as this one have killed thousands of broiler chickens and reduced the productivity of all livestock and poultry. All livestock and poultry suffer.

 

The first advice is to keep air moving.

 

Increasing air speed across animals, ensuring fans are operating efficiently, and using evaporative cooling systems where appropriate can dramatically reduce the effects of elevated temperatures.

Researchers emphasize that preventing heat buildup is far more effective than trying to cool animals after heat stress has already developed.

As temperatures rise, water consumption increases substantially. The advice is to regularly inspect drinkers, verify flow rates, and ensure unrestricted access throughout the barn.

 

They suggest offering more feed during cooler periods of the day since animals such as pigs will eat less when it’s hot.

 

Humidity, air movement, stocking density, and barn ventilation all influence how much heat animals actually experience. Monitoring conditions inside the barn provides a much more accurate picture of heat stress risk than relying solely on weather forecasts.

Pork packers lose animal welfare case

The United States. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Massachusetts’ Question 3 animal confinement law, leaving the measure in place.

The measure is similar to California’s Proposition 12 which has upset farmers and meat packers and complicated nation-wide distribution chains.

The Massachusetts case was brought by pork producers Triumph Foods, Christensen Farms Midwest, The Hanor Company of Wisconsin, New Fashion Pork, Eichelberger Farms and Allied Producers’ Cooperative against Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell.

Approved by Massachusetts voters in 2016, Question 3 prohibits the sale of pork in the state unless it comes from animals raised under specified confinement standards, regardless of where the animals were produced. The law applies to out-of-state pork producers seeking access to the Massachusetts market.

The challenge received support from Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird and attorneys general from 23 other states, who filed a brief urging the court to strike down the law. 

The states argued that Massachusetts lacks authority to regulate livestock production practices beyond its borders and that the law imposes significant compliance costs on pork producers nationwide.

U.S. worried about Brazilian packers

 

United States Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said she will not allow two Brazilian meat packers to continue to dominate the industry, so she announced funding to help smaller packers compete.

“The fact that we’ve got two Brazilian-owned companies that are managing or running about half of our processing in the country is just unsustainable,” she said.

“So, we’ve got to get all of this back to America and get it back very quickly. Now, will this all be done in a year? No, but we’re setting up the infrastructure so that for the long term our farmers have what they need at the price that they need, so that they continue to pass down their farms and we can continue to be the world’s greatest source and breadbasket of food, fuel, and clothing for the future.””On Tuesday she announced the Strengthening Processing for U.S. Ranchers (SPUR) Program, which is to give up to $500 million to beef packers. 

“Only U.S.-owned companies are eligible, and the so-called Big Four packers are excluded.”

 JBS and National Beef/Marfrig are Brazilian-owned companies. They and two U.S. companies, Tyson and Cargill, account for 80 per cent of U.S. beef slaughter.

“On Wednesday, Rollins announced a separate $500 program to help finance “shovel-ready” fertilizer production or expansion — the Fertilizer Investment & Expansion for Long-Term Domestic Supply (FIELDS) Program — as well as regulatory streamlining to speed development in the industry.

“Understanding the immense pressure that the ag economy and especially row croppers are under right now, as fuel continues to come down, fertilizer continues to come down, labor continues to come down, we are on a really good trajectory,” Rollins said. “It’s just gonna take a little while to get those inputs down, as we’re opening up the markets around the world and we begin to solve for some of these very long-term structural issues.”