Approach
As with crops, altered climate conditions will affect livestock production. Climate can affect animal agriculture through changes in feed grain production, pasture and forage crop production, animal productivity, and disease and pest issues. In particular, livestock respond to changes in temperature by altering their core body temperature, metabolic rates, or behavior, all of which can lead to increased stress and disrupt their growth, production, or reproduction. This approach emphasizes actions that manage the current livestock systems. Strategy 6 (Alter management to accommodate new and expected conditions) describes actions to transition to new breeds or systems while Strategy 8 (Alter infrastructure to accommodate new and expected conditions) describes the use of infrastructure such as fans or misters to cool animals.
Tactics
- Provide partial to total shelter to reduce heat stress associated with extreme heat.
- Increase available shade for pastured animals.
- Alter grazing management practices or rotations to match stock rates to forage production such as by moving cattle to fresh pasture at night.
- Use grass or fodder banks (resting of pastures for >1 year) to provide forage during dry periods.
- Alter the timing or placement of feeder animals and subsequent finishing time of these animals to reduce stress associated with heat waves.
- Select more heat-tolerant breeds.
Strategy
Strategy Text
Many of the key climate variables affecting agricultural productivity are directly tied to increases in temperature. A longer growing season, warmer daytime and nighttime temperatures, and drier conditions are all expected to have important effects on agricultural crops and livestock, and in many areas of the Midwest, effects are already being observed. Increasingly, producers will need to consider and address the unique effects of higher temperatures on individual commodities. In some locations, drier conditions will have greater impacts.
Janowiak, M., D. Dostie, M. Wilson, M. Kucera, R. H. Skinner, J. Hatfield, D. Hollinger, and C. Swanston. 2016. Adaptation Resources for Agriculture: Responding to Climate Variability and Change in the Midwest and Northeast. Technical Bulletin 1944. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Office of the Chief Economist, Climate Change Program Office. 69 p.,