Dying cows? Breaking my own rules to keep the Farm Animals Safe!

come here boy what happened to you what happened to you you got happy you happy happy yeah we to ride you want to ride hey are we going yeah huh come on boy come on boy hey there folks this is Josh Stony Ridge farmer welcome back to another gorgeous day hot day here on the Stony Ridge Farm and today we're going to talk about heat and stress and what we have to do extra here on the ston Ridge Farm in order to help our animals recover and do good in hot weather so folks these are our layers and our meat birds for the year they're the American breast or American Bree chicken these guys are pretty heat tolerant when you get your chickens you need to think about where you are where you're located okay so if you're up north where it gets to subzero temperatures you may want to consider a bird that's more hearty for cold temperatures chickens are tropical animals so heat really doesn't bother them so much as long as they have access to good water and good shade we got about 70 chickens here and all 70 of these chickens are drinking water like crazy all summer long so I'm giving them about 10 gallons of water per day we keep the feeders full the waterers full and we keep the waterers out of the shade so they have to leave the shade to go to the water and why do we do that it's so they don't just lay under there and drink up all the water all day long we don't need them to do that we need them to have access to shade to where they can get cooled off lay down on a nice cool ground which stays about 55 to 60 degrees and have access to good food and good water now let's take Buddy on his special treat he gets a special treat every day and Buddy is my dog we've got five cats that are outside cats buddy is an outside dog this is a farm dog and I don't know how many of you guys have ever driven up to a farm but what happens when you drive up to a farm you're always greeted by either barking dogs or wagging Tails these dogs aren't inside dogs this is a farm dog he protects the area he protects these chickens he protects the garden from deer he protects the chickens from foxes and coyotes he protects the cows also and what he does is he deserves to get a nice cool dip every day so let's take Buddy out for his morning dip another reason why buddy stays outside is because if his bark or his bite doesn't get you his smell will get you he's stanking come on good boy good boy water water all I have to say is water buddy knows exactly what's going on every day in these hot summer months sometimes two and three times a day I'll take Buddy down to the pond and let him get a good dip in the nice cool water get that water ever since buddy was a pup he's always loved water he always likes to get out in the water he likes to swim he likes to play he's getting a little bit older guys I'm giving him some medication right now to help him his hips are a little bit sore I can tell he doesn't have the spring in his step that he used to have and also he got a little bit wormy so we dewormed buddy and man it really turned him around he's looking absolutely great good job boy get that water get that water are you ready I think you're ready you ready ready good boy very smart [Music] dog go to your house here you go if he was an inside dog and he lived in inside all the time we definitely couldn't have him out here in these hot temperatures you can't take a dog that's used to 70° and put him out in 95° and expect them to thrive that's why buddy has his own house right out here let's go check the birdies all right guys we're going to drive by the honeybees right here and they are grumpy grumpy grumpy grumpy we're just simply going to drive by quickly hot dry summer days make your honey bees angry those honey bees will not tolerate me at all so we're riding up to the cow pasture right here and this is where the cows are for the next 24 hours hey Tammy good morning Tammy how are you how are you Tammy is our guard donkey and Tammy is very very heat tolerant if you know anything about donkeys donkeys are definitely a very heat tolerant animal when the cows are over in the shade down by the creek Tammy is right out here by the gate right out in the sunshine it doesn't seem to bother her too much and I've never seen signs of heat stress in Tammy let's walk over and we'll show you where the cows are and we'll talk about heat stress in cattle as you guys can see it's super dry out I fed hay here yesterday here here this morning already and we've got several different little piles of hay the ground is so hard and dry right now it's just cracking up really really bad we've not had a significant rainfall in quite some time here on the Stony Ridge Farm we're in North Central North Carolina and the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains we're going to follow Tammy we can hear the cows over here in fact let's go ahead and give them our cattle call woo so if they don't respond to me and they don't call back that means they pretty happy pretty chill same scenario here guys the cows have access to shade this Valley right here also has a Creek in it the food is out here I want them to not be laying around lounging and pooping in their food so they Lounge over here and they eat out here they've got one more day in this padic before we move them across the farm to nice green grass which is right over there and we're going to give them access to about 40 acres so in the hottest part of the day the cattle tend to get over here in the shady area and you can see they're all basically lounging right here in the shade they will consume the leaves off of these trees they will eat up the canopy just like so and they'll lay down right here in this nice cool sandy soil down by the creek hey guys good morning everybody so let's talk about signs of heat stress in our animals guys and none of these animals are showing signs of heat stress one sign of heat stress would be panting their mouth would be wide open they would actually have drool or froth coming from them you can see their belly panting these cows are not under any heat stress whatsoever right here because they have a nice cool place to chill out now here on the Stony Ridge Farm I'm pretty much about keeping our animals out of waterways however I've had to make an exception to this and in the regenerative farming world we try to make exceptions to every rule I guess the cows need a cool place to chill out whether it's access to a pond in temperatures like this or access to a creek which we can see some of the cows are actually down here by the creek hey bud how you doing how you guys doing this morning hey good morning everybody you don't have to get up Daddy's just coming down through here so you can see there's a nice big water puddle down here this cow's standing in the water puddle and they're actually dispersing heat from their bodies through their Hooves in other words they'll get in this nice running water and they will lose body heat through the hoof touching that cool water everybody is very chill very relaxed we've just got a pretty cool little ecosystem going right here do I believe that we need to overstress waterways by putting our cattle in waterways absolutely not do I believe in losing cattle to heat stress because they don't have access to shade and a Waterway no I think there comes a time when there's an exception to every single Rule and that exception is right now in the hot time of the year when the heat index is up to 100 to 110 degrees that can kill our animals and I don't know if you guys paid any attention to the news last year but we had feed Lots where cattle were out there in large groups and large bunches without access to proper shade and or proper water and what they do out on these feed Lots with these black cows which really soak up the heat is they'll sprinkle water over top of of them but sometimes it's just not enough to cool them and last year when we had a drought out west in those feed Lots which is not what we have here we have cows on grass we have nature not concrete and not feed lots and we're not just dumping food to our cows we're letting them consume what they want to consume when we treat our cows like this they don't have that heat stress that they have out on feed Lots where they're out there in the middle of nowhere with no trees and not exposed this and this is what keeps the cows cool the cool ground access to water and the shade from the trees so the difference in what we do in the spring and in the fall with the cattle versus right here in the hot hot part of the summer is we give them access to more water and we give them access to shade just like this guys so my routine throughout the day is to make sure that these cows are not heat stressed and if they are heat stressed it's my job as the farmer SL Rancher to get these cattle to a place where they always have access to shade in the summertime one of the biggest mistakes and I'm going to leave you guys with this thought one of the biggest mistakes I made in building this Farm was simply not leaving that I didn't leave enough trees in my pastures and I'm having to pay for that right now we just planted somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 different trees throughout the pastures to help build hedge RS to give the cows this opportunity now I don't allow them in the waterways but a couple times a year but when it's 110° outside the animals health is super important and we don't have 500 cows in a creek making a huge mess right here we've got 50 cows lounging in the shade with plenty of access to water when it gets really really hot we'll open up to the pond up top and they'll be able to Wade all the way into the pond belly deep and that will help keep them cool heat stress is super important guys and if your animals are suffering from heat stress it can cause loss of life it can cause loss of weight it can cause decreased productivity and it can really harm your animals so it's all about keeping everybody comfortable here on the Stony Ridge Farm keeping the cows comfortable providing access to shade during these hot hot summer months and water is super important if you only have waterers set out a sprinkler in the middle of the day underneath your shady area and let let those cows get some water on them keep them cool it will make them more productive and they will be better healthier and hearer animals these animals are out here in 0 degrees in the winter time and they're out here in 110° in the summertime super hearty great Critters but you got to take care of them and you have to know the signs of heat stress I'll post them right here so you guys know frothing at the mouth panting drooling lethargicness or lethargy all those are signs of heat strength thank you guys please hit that like button subscribe to the channel love to have you back here on the Stony Ridge scene one act one stressful days on the farm where the cows are super hot and their owner is too now I'm suffering from heat stress I need to get back in the house