Some Daviess cows too hot to make milk - 14 News, WFIE, Evansville, Henderson, Owensboro

Some Daviess cows too hot to make milk

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High temperatures have many local farmers busy cooling their livestock.

In several parts of the US, cattle are dying because of the heat.

Herdsman are doing their best to prevent anymore deaths and keep their production from slipping any further.

There's a lot of spraying and fanning going on at Laddane Farms.

Herdsman like C. B. Sowder have worked around the clock to make sure their dairy cows stay comfortable in the heat.

About 80 cows stay in the ventilated barn, which serves as a cooling station to help keep the animals producing milk.

Sowder says if a cow is chewing, she's making milk but not all cows are chewing and production is down.

Sowder says the high temps cause the cows discomfort. They aren't as hungry and their milk production goes down.

"They can't sweat, they're too lazy to pant, so the heat goes to their feet so we have a lot of lame cows and that's the problem," Sowder told 14 News.

Sowder says a few cows have swollen hooves.  They are treating them in separate barns.

AG extension agent Clint Hardy says farmers in Daviess County are taking a hit but luckily no animals have died from the heat.

That's not the case in some other regions of the US. State officials reported heat-related deaths at some feedlots in the upper Midwest of 150 to 300 head.

In parts of Minnesota, the conditions have been the worst that some producers have experienced.

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