At least you can sweat and aren’t wrapped in cowhide.
“They just get miserable,” said Michelle Schilter, owner of Sun-Ton Farms, a dairy farm near Adna in rural Lewis County.
Shilter said whenever it tops 70 degrees their 450 dairy cows get stressed and don’t produce as much milk.
“So be it the heat, or the flies, or just not being out where they’ve been comfortable for the last two months,” said Shilter. “Any stress on them you start seeing production drop.”
Shilter says they bought extra sawdust to provide sleeping areas in the shade and they’re spraying a peppermint oil on the cows to keep away flies, who she said get more aggressive in the heat.
They’re feeding the cows earlier in the day and delaying milkings until after the peak of the afternoon heat.
“We’re waiting for nature’s air conditioning to kick in and start bringing that breeze in from the coast,” said Schilter.
Source: KING
Link: http://www.king5.com/news/local/dairy-farmers-have-legitimate-beef-about-heat-wave/461487361
