Helping Your Animals Beat the Heat

🌡️ Holy smokes it’s hot this week!

Hot Weather Is Hard on Livestock. Here’s How to Help Them Beat the Heat

When temperatures climb, your animals work overtime to stay cool. Heat stress doesn’t just make them uncomfortable, it can reduce feed intake, slow growth, decrease milk and egg production, impact fertility, and in severe cases, become life-threatening.

A few simple management changes can make a big difference:

💧 Fresh, cool water is non-negotiable. Check waterers several times a day, scrub algae regularly, and remember that animals can drink 2-3 times more water during hot weather.

🧂 Replace the minerals they’re losing. Animals sweat, pant, and lose valuable electrolytes in the heat. Offering a quality free-choice mineral and natural mineral salt helps replenish what they’re losing and encourages healthy water intake.

🐔 Give poultry an extra hydration boost. Chickens don’t sweat, they cool themselves by panting, which causes them to lose moisture and electrolytes. Fertrell’s Simple 6 Poultry Hydration Booster is an easy way to support hydration during stretches of extreme heat.

🍯 Provide quick energy without increasing heat load. A little molasses in the ration or water (when appropriate) can encourage intake while supplying potassium and readily available energy for stressed animals.

🌿 Support animals under extra stress. During periods of extreme heat, transportation, weaning, or other challenges, TurboBoost360 can help support normal digestive function and overall resilience.

🌳 Shade makes a difference. Whether it’s trees, a run-in shed, or shade cloth, every species benefits from relief from direct afternoon sun.

🌬️ Keep the air moving. Fans in barns, open windows, and good ventilation help remove heat and humidity. For rabbits especially, airflow can be the difference between thriving and dangerous heat stress.

🥕 Feed smart. Animals naturally eat less when they’re hot. Offering fresh feed during the cooler morning or evening hours often encourages better intake. Fresh feed is also more palatable – and during summer, it’s another reason we recommend buying only what you’ll use in the next few weeks.

Heat waves don’t have to mean struggling livestock. With plenty of fresh water, balanced minerals, good ventilation, and a few simple management practices, your chickens, cattle, sheep, goats, horses, rabbits, and other livestock can stay healthier and more comfortable all summer long.

What are your favorite tricks for keeping your animals cool? Share them below, we’re always looking for good ideas!