Baby, it's Hot Outside!

When you are moving from a nice air-conditioned house, to an air-conditioned car, and then to an air-conditioned office, high heat warnings are something that you take note of, but you don't really notice.  We live in Virginia, so summers with temperatures in the mid-90s are fairly common.  Having a heat index over 100 also happens at least once or twice each summer.  While I was working in the corporate world, I would take note of these high temperature warnings, but unless they occurred on a weekend when I was actually working on the farm, they were sort of academic.  Yes, I worried about the animals and how they would fare, but I didn't really WORRY about the animals because for the most part I wasn't living in and experiencing the heat.  They would be fed in the morning and fed in the evening once the sun was off the pastures, and my husband would make sure everyone had water throughout the day.  For all the hot hours in-between feeding times, I was sitting in an air-conditioned car or an air-conditioned office.   All the animals had shade, they had water, and they had food, so they survived without too many issues.  We lost a chicken or two and one ewe to extremely high temperatures, but I don't remember any other animals succumbing to the heat...boy were we lucky.

We just spent the better part of two weeks with temperatures in the low to mid 90s, and high humidity levels.  The culmination of this heat wave occurred over the weekend when we had temperatures in the high 90s and heat indexes of between 109 - 115.  The goats like the heat, so I wasn't as worried about them since I knew they had water and shade, but the sheep don't "do" the sun, and they definitely don't like hot weather.   We weaned the ram lambs a few weeks ago, so they are in one pasture with our breeding ram.  The ewes and ewe lambs are split into two groups along maternal lines.  They are split so that everyone in a pasture can fit into an 12' x 10' three-sided run-in shed.  The farm was all in hay before we bought it, so the pastures really don't have shade except for late in the evening.  The sheep hate the sun, so they will all crowd into or around the run-in sheds to get out of the sun.  They move around the sheds with the sun, so they are always in the shade.  On hot days, you can look outside in the middle of the day and you would swear that there are no animals in any of the pastures because they are all in, or lying around, the run-in sheds.

This time the heat warnings are real and hit home.  I am now farming full-time, so I am out in the heat every day and boy does it make a difference!  Instead of sitting in an air-conditioned car or office, I am out in the heat with the animals on a daily basis.  In the morning, we feed the animals like we always do, but then I make make sure all the water troughs are full.  I also make sure that none of the animals look overly stressed or sick.  Since the sheep are spending all their time in the run-in sheds, we put straw down in each shed to absorb the urine and feces, so they aren't laying in it.  In the early evening, I make the rounds again to make sure everyone is still upright and accounted for.  I  put out fresh minerals, and then clean-out and fill up the water troughs again since algae and other things multiple quickly in the water troughs with the extreme heat.  When I write it all down, it doesn't seem like a lot of work, but when you are physically active outside with a heat index of 100+, it takes a lot out of you.  I go through 2-3 shirts a day, and I have given up putting suntan lotion on because I sweat it all off as soon as I go outside.  I have also discovered that sweat is nature's hair gel, and I can get my hair to stand-up at all sorts of angles once the sweat on my scalp dries.  In the morning the temperatures are cooler, but the sun is extremely hot.  In the evening the sun isn't a factor, but the air temperature and humidity are much higher. During the middle of the day, I try to move from point of shade to point of shade and be outside as little as possible.  Even though the heat wave technically ended yesterday evening, I am completely drained from being in the heat, so I can only imagine how the animals feel. 

A storm came through last night and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees.  When we got up to feed and check on everyone this morning, the temperature was in the upper 60s instead of the low 80s and there was a steady rain.  After the extreme heat, I expected all the sheep to be out grazing and enjoying the cooler temperatures and rain.  Instead, they were all in the run-in sheds staying dry. I seem to have very spoiled sheep that only want to be out in "perfect" weather.  It also appears that they survived the heat wave better than I did, and I guess that is farming from the middle.