MONTPELIER, Ohio —
The heat is important for everyone to monitor, but local farmers must take extra precautions to ensure livestock stays cool.
"Many people think that cows are just like humans, but really cows are very different," Saul Triana, operational manager for Bridgewater Dairy Farms said.
According to Triana, anything over 80 degrees can cause heat stress and when cows get stressed, milk production goes down.
"When she's hot, she doesn’t want to eat much," Triana said. "If she's not eating and resting, she's not producing milk."
Bridgewater Dairy Farms has over 5,500 cows between their two locations, so it takes a lot to keep them from starting to sizzle.
"Summertime is just a hard time for the cows," Triana said. "I mean cows would probably live in 30-degree weather all day. That's why it's important for us to have all our fans run."
In one barn on the farm, there are over 100 fans.
"We try to create a wind tunnel of about 15 miles per hour to take away the humidity from them," he said.
The farm also has sprinklers that run every 45 minutes to help keep temperatures down.
"They drink more water," Triana said. "Making sure that water is clean and then our feed. We don't let our feed get hot so they're always getting cool, fresh feed."
Cows will huddle together when they are stressed which can be an issue in the summertime heat.
"I think anytime there's stress in the barn, no cow wants to be the outside cow so they just pile up," Triana said.
To prevent this, farmers will try to make sure overhead doors are closed so no cow feels left out.
Triana said they also try to keep the employees on the farm cool, aiming to do most of the work outside before 8 a.m.
The farm also has sensors on every cow that measure their body temperature and food and water intake. If there is an issue, employees will get an alert to check on them.
Triana said milk intake has not drastically decreased with the current heat and as of right now, all the cows are doing well.