Farm Director KC Sheperd recently had the chance to catch up with Oklahoma State University Extension Beef Cattle Specialist, Dr. Rosslyn Biggs to discuss strategies for ensuring animal and human safety during extreme weather events, with a focus on tornadoes, wildfires, and droughts.
Ideally, Biggs said producers should have made preparations before storm season in Oklahoma to ensure the safety of their livestock and themselves.
“We want to think about human safety first, and animal safety next and have a plan for those things- particularly if we need to evacuate,” Biggs said. “As we enter later summer, depending upon if we have had rain or haven’t had rain, we want to be thinking about wildfires as well. How we are going to respond to that is really kind of top of mind in being prepared.”
Later into the summer, Biggs said being aware of how rainfall amounts will impact prussic acid or nitrate levels in forages is critical.
“Our classic kind of grass we are worried about there is Johnson grass, and those indications of how that can impact animals grazing directly, and/or how we are going to hay those, and things related to the prussic acid, which is cyanide and nitrates as well,” Biggs said.
Water availability is critical at all times of the year, but Biggs said animals are more susceptible to heat stress and other ailments when they do not have access to proper amounts of water. Ensuring cattle have access to clean and fresh water should be a top priority, Biggs said, along with checking that availability daily.
“The heat is coming for sure, and we want to think about how that impacts our cattle, particularly those that are black-hided,” Biggs said. “We worry about things like water deprivation, especially when dealing with automatic waters.”
Some parts of the state have received immense amounts of rainfall lately, and Biggs said those parts need to be watching for issues such as foot rot.
“The thing about foot rot is that it is not always foot rot, so if we are not seeing a response to treatment for foot rot, we really need to get those cattle up and take a closer look at those feet themselves, and have some veterinary intervention there,” Biggs said.
For those still wrapping up their calving season, Biggs said producers must pay close attention to keeping those calves in dry areas. When it comes to situations such as lighting strikes during storms causing fatalities or tornadoes, Biggs said she recommends producers consider insuring their herd.
“We want to be cognizant in monitoring those animals,” Biggs said.
Coming up, Biggs also talked about the third annual Cattlewomen’s Bootcamp which will be hosted in Stillwater, Oklahoma on June 10-12! For registration info, CLICK HERE!
To listen to KC Sheperd talk with Oklahoma State University Area Agricultural Economics Specialist, JJ Jones about Cattlewomen’s Bootcamp details and more, CLICK HERE!
