Erratic temperatures pose pneumonia risk for livestock

For some farmers, fluctuations between cold and warm temperatures can pose issues for livestock.

“Going from 70 degrees to 30 degrees or below freezing is very hard for an animal to try to adjust,” said Rick Ebert of Ebert Family Farms in Derry. “You have to make sure there is plenty of ventilation if there are cows in the barn because they can develop pneumonia pretty quickly from getting too hot.”

Animals like cattle get thicker hair when it is cold outside, which can make it difficult for them if the weather rapidly warms, explained Dustin Heeter, livestock educator at the Penn State Cooperative Extension for Westmoreland County.

“As much as humans enjoy the weather, animals do not,” Heeter said. “If you can think about an animal going into winter — beef cattle, cattle in general, horses — they are going to develop a heavy winter hair coat. We have just been up and down the thermometer. That is extremely hard for an animal to handle.”

Weather this warm also prevents the ground from freezing, making farms muddier.

“We have had a lot of mud all winter long, and it takes extra energy out of an animal to trod through the mud,” Heeter said. “When the ground is frozen and an animal lays down on it, there’s some insulation, but when the ground is muddy and wet, that draws body heat out of the animal.”

Ben Logan of Logan Family Farms in Hempfield said he has seen more issues with pneumonia among the 120 cows on his farm this year.

“The bigger issue is a dramatic sweep in temperature over a three- or four-day period,” he said. “That is probably more of an issue for livestock, the inconsistency of temperature rather than the actual temperature itself.”

Even so, he admitted that he prefers a mild winter like this to one with severe amounts of snow.

“If we get an inch or two, I don’t worry about pushing snow, but if you get enough snow, you have to go plow it or push it with a machine or shovel it, and you end up spending hours moving snow. And you don’t accomplish any typical daily chores or tasks,” he said. “Luckily, we don’t live in an area where that is as much of a problem.”