We're getting more extreme storms which then
cause erosion problems
We have more dust, which can create some respiratory
problems
Heat stress on the animals will affect their
production
The sows aren't comfortable and so they just
don't perform as well
Agricultural production is at the mercy of
weather and climate. Adequate rainfall and
ideal temperatures result in good crop production,
productive pastures, and healthy animals.
But when precipitation patterns or temperatures
fall out of the normal range, both crops and
livestock are impacted.
Hello, My name is David Schmidt, I am an Agricultural
Engineer at the University of Minnesota and
the regional coordinator for the Animal Agriculture
in a Changing Climate project.
Most of us can identify the challenges of
a long drought, a big flood, extreme heat
or extreme cold on animal production. Sometimes
death loss or property loss is inevitable.
But there are many other more subtle impacts
that occur with only slight changes in climate
and weather. These changes in milk production
or feed efficiency can also result in significant
economic losses. Often this is seen as the
cost of doing business.
Climate is not constant and climate conditions
have always and will continue to impact agriculture.
Reducing these impacts requires three things:
understanding local, regional, national, and
international climate trends, identifying
farm specific vulnerabilities to these trends,
and making strategic changes on the farm to
minimize these impacts. This lecture presents
an overview of some of the climate impacts,
but more importantly, describes a systematic
approach to identifying impacts or assessing
farm vulnerability to climate changes.
The best way to identify climate impacts on
the farm is through a farm climate impacts
audit. An audit is a systematic approach to
evaluating a process or system to identify
weaknesses. This lesson will take you through
some of the key elements to be evaluated by
a farm climate impacts audit. Those elements
include farm inputs, animal production, logistics
and farm exports. The elements may differ
from farm to farm, and so the audit should
be conducted with the understanding that each
individual farm is unique, and any audit may
divert from the systematic approach.
The farm inputs most affected by climate impacts
are feed and forage. The impacts can be related
to seasonal changes in temperature, or rainfall,
or by extreme events such as drought and flooding.
These impacts can affect both the quantity
and the quality of feed and forage. The effects
can be seen in row crops, forages, or in pastures.
Climate trends are indicating a longer growing
season. This along with seasonal temperature
and rainfall trends will impact the productivity
of the fields.
Pests, weeds, and diseases also can follow
temperature and precipitation patterns which
can negatively impact feed and forage production.
Farmers and agriculture professionals from
around the world can attest to the impacts
of climate on feed and forage.
One of the challenges on many dairy farms is weather patterns and harvest windows.
Let's say you need a 4 day window to harvest a high
quality forage and it is going to rain every
two days. Then even though he knows what he
needs, mother nature says-  ...sometimes it interferes.
So I think a lot of it comes back to the climate
change, the weather, those patterns and so
on. But again if you look at the data
forage quality now versus 20 years ago is a lot better.
We're making improvements, we just have to keep moving.
When you have a situation when animal numbers
are reasonably high because they’ve been
built up over a couple of years, and you get
a sudden drought that’s quite widespread,
you have limited capacity to maintain those
animals with feed because they rely on natural
native grasses. The production of grain for
feeding is reduced.
Animal feed often comes from off-farm sources.
Farmers should be aware of how vulnerable
these off-farm sources are to climate changes.
Crop failure on a large scale might make an
individual farm vulnerable to short or long-term
increases in the price of feed.
Another farm input that animal agriculture
cannot survive without is water, whether it’s
water for growing feed or water for the animals
to drink. This water may come from groundwater
aquifers, rain fed streams, rivers, lakes
or ponds or snow melt. The availability and
quality of water on a farm may be affected
by seasonal variations in climate. Questions
to ask are, where does the water come from
for your farm, and how will your farm be impacted
by any changes to this supply. Predictability,
availability, and timing are critical.
Climate and weather also play a role in farm
inputs of energy – both electricity and
diesel fuel. Backup generators are status
quo on most farms, and in areas where there
are more intense rains or storms, generators
are even more important. On a national scale,
fuel supply and fuel prices are impacted by
tropical weather events. So, energy inputs
to the farm are vulnerable not only to the
energy supply but also to changes in price
both short and long term.
While the impacts of climate on farm inputs
are clear, the most critical impacts of climate
on animal agriculture are seen in animal production.
Heat stress has always impacted animal production,
so any increased frequency of warmer temperatures
or more humid conditions can result in additional
challenges.
According to a study by St. Pierre in 2003,
the beef, swine, dairy and poultry industries
were losing 2.4 billion dollars per year due
to the impacts of heat stress. These impacts included
decreased animal performance, increased mortality
and decreased reproduction.
Heat stress can have a critical impact on
several different types of farm animals, and
the effects can vary by species. Farmers 
animal scientists are all well aware of some of these impacts
If someone's telling me they don't get heat stress, usually I ask them,
Do you lose any milk production in the summer? Normally they say yes, that tells me they have heat stress
There’s a lot of different changes that
will occur on the animal so some impacts on
such as milk production will drop by 5 to
25% depending on the dairy and what kind of
cooling technology etcetera that they have
So milk production is the obvious one that
a lot of producers will see but the one that’s
sometimes forgotten about and is even bigger
is reproduction because will see drops of
30-75% on some of these dairies -- drops in
reproduction. Because we’ve genetically
made this animal to produce milk so that’s
where she diverts her energy and resources
after typical body maintenance so reproduction’s
going to be the last way to come – obviously
mother nature you’re not going to try to
sustain an embryo if you can’t sustain yourself
or the milk production that she was bred to
do. So reproduction takes an even larger hit
and even at – possibly earlier temperatures
than what milk production will. But those
are production-losses wise but then you’ll
see behavioral changes with animals starting
to pant more, breathing more often, salivating
more, they’ll stand up and try to get more
air flow across them. So you'll see a lot more animals standing.
The extremes would be mortality. Because pigs
don’t sweat, they get really hot. Biggest
is they are not going to eat and they are
not going to gain so average daily gain is
the biggest thing that it affects.
We are seeing seasonal infertility with conception
so we actually overbreed in the summertime to make up for that.
Well the sow’s thermal neutral zone is about
65 degrees Fahrenheit, and any time she’s
about to get above those temperatures she’s
going to start to feel heat stress. And there’s
probably variation amongst sows as to where
they really start to feel the effects of that.
But the further you get above that 65 degrees,
the more heat stress they feel. So a sow at
70 going to feel maybe a little uncomfortable,
maybe her respiration rate will increase a
little bit. When it gets to 80 it’s going
to get a little more uncomfortable, when it
gets to 90 it’s going to get just miserable.
And so it’s just a matter of degree. And
to say--technically once she’s outside the
thermal neutral zone she’s heat stressed,
but it’s a matter of degree.
When humidity is high the heat loss becomes
more inefficient, and so they have to work
harder to try to get rid of the extra heat.
Panting birds use energy, they have to generate energy to be able to do that panting
because that is all done with muscular contractions,
so the more they have to pant, the longer
they have to pant, and more energy they are
using, the more you can get byproducts of
the energy metabolism that can affect the
acid base balance and then that will have a negative impact on the
bird on how long it can take and be able to control body temperature before it can increase and reach
a lethal state.
So assuming we are not talking about lethal
temperatures, birds are able to maintain their body
temperature, but it takes energy to do that.
So they are spending feed energy in terms
of trying to keep up with the panting process,
so feed intake will decrease. So depending
on where you are on the response curve, you
will see decreased feed intake, and then worsening
with feed efficiency since they are using
heat energy for maintenance of body temperature.
And then eventually over time the rate of
gain intake will decrease as well.
Instead of weight gain for the market or the
meat birds, here we're looking at what happens in terms of egg production and fertility or hatchability, so warmer temperatures similar
to the birds again will decrease the feed
intake, and that can have an impact on egg
production. Another part of it is if they spend
a lot of time panting, that will impact the
acid base balance and they will impact the
calcium deposition on the shells
and so you'll end up actually with thinner eggshells
We had some eggshell quality problems that would be very similar to what happens with chicken layers as well
those birds producing table eggs for human consumption.
The most common impacts of heat stress on
animals are loss in productivity and reproductive
problems.
These impacts can vary depending on the type
of species and their different phases of production.
Impacts are also a function of the duration
of the heat event and the ability of the animals
to cool down in the evening.
If temperatures do not fall enough during
the night, the animals cannot cool down.
A species and production-specific temperature-humidity
index can help alert farmers to potential
heat stress impacts.
The impacts of heat stress on production are
captured by seasonal production numbers. For
example, in recent years, swine producers
in Iowa have reported 3-4% reductions in slaughter
weights during the summer months each year.
Milk production per cow is affected by many
factors but the annual cycles are are quite
evident with an estimated 5-10 pounds of milk
per day lost due to heat stress in late summer
and fall.
Along with heat stress, animals can be also
impacted by cold. South Dakota’s livestock
industry took a major hit in 2013 when an
autumn snow storm killed tens of thousands
of cattle:
Animals in ravines and pastures where they froze to death, and many more could die in the months to come.
Animals are also affected by abrupt changes
from cool temperatures to warmer temperatures.
Animals need time to adapt to changes in weather.
Farmers need to ask, how vulnerable is the
farm to early high season temperatures?
Climate changes can also impact the spread
of diseases and pests. Warmer temperatures,
mild winters, and changing rainfall amounts
result in the migration of pests to different
geographical areas. Farmers need to ask, how
vulnerable is the farm to the spread of new
diseases or pests?
“If we don’t have the freeze to kill the
bacteria, to kill the pathogens, we’re gonna
have more problems with parasites and other
illnesses. I’m beginning to see more cases,
and I think this is true of my fellow producers,
seeing more cases of respiratory illnesses.
That was almost unheard of with animals on
pasture, unless they were stressed for some
other reason, we just didn’t see it. But
now we’re starting to see things such as
respiratory disease, and animals in some cases
dying. I’ve been fortunate I haven’t lost
any to respiratory disease but I have a lot
of colleagues who have lost animals from respiratory
disease. Last year we had a bout of pink eye,
which I’ve not seen pink eye happen in the
herd for probably 25 years. Last year we had
a very serious strain come through and affect
a lot of animals. And again just something
new that we’ve never had before but again
is a result of the warm temperatures, the
dust, the flies, all of that.
After looking at the impacts of climate on
farm inputs and on animal production, it’s
important to examine the impacts on Farm logistics,
which are quite complex. Logistics include
the timing and transporting of young animals,
feed and supplies to the farm, the feeding
of animals, the scheduling of reproduction,
animal movement through phases of production,
manure management, milking equipment and schedules,
farm maintenance, and more. Again, the farmer
must determine how vulnerable these systems
are to climate.
Manure management is one area of farm logistics
that becomes more complicated as a result
of extreme weather events:
The additional rainfall we’re getting happens
in the spring and in the winter and of course
that’s your critical period for the storage
because of course over the winter you’re
storing it and then in the spring you’ve
got to spread it and if it’s wet, everything
delayed – yeah – so you’re storing more
for a longer period of time when it’s even
wetter so it… it compounds on you.
Changes in the amount, timing and intensity
of rainfall all put farmers at risk for overtopping
manure storages. When it comes to manure application,
changes in precipitation can create logistics
problems with either the timing of the application
or with increased potential for runoff and
pollution problems. In addition, any changes
in temperature will make it more difficult
to estimate crop nutrient availability.
Climate changes also impact pasture management.
Some grazing areas may not be available due
to flooding or drought conditions.
On the other end of the spectrum in the winter
time, we’re seeing milder winters. Even
though the temperatures are milder, we have
less snow, we’re getting more precipitation
and so we’re getting more mud. And the mud
creates problems in itself with not only being
physically messy to work with, but also there
are more apt to be hoof problems.
Farms might also be vulnerable to flooded
roads or bridges, which makes transporting
animals or products on or off the farm more challenging...
Ask the dairy farmers near Buffalo New York
how prepared they were for an early season
blizzard in 2014 that brought up to 8 feet
of snow in the western part of the state.
The snow prevented milk trucks from reaching
the local dairies and some farmers were forced
to dump milk.
Times of extreme heat or cold not only affect
the animals but the human labor on the farm.
Flooding or heavy snowfall might also prevent
farm employees from getting to work. Often
these logistical considerations are missed
when thinking about climate impacts.
Climate and weather challenges to animal production
are only part of the farm economic picture.
Farmers need to also assess the impacts of
climate on farm exports, meaning the products
that are marketed and sold by the farm: the
price they get for their products.
The Market prices for these farm products
are impacted by many factors, including and
include climate conditions on a local, national
or global scale.
For example, livestock producers have seen
their profits affected in recent years due
to the impacts of drought:
That’s traditionally what we’ve done in
drought management, is we wait for it to become
dry, then we have a whole suite of actions
we typically undertake. Try to sell animals,
try to buy feed, look at additional resources
for those animals, and we’re caught in a
time when everyone else is trying to do the
same thing. So price of animals decline, price
of feed increases, and economically that’s
a disaster for livestock producers.
We talk about summer heat coming and helping
out the markets. That is what we think about
- so if everyone else’s pigs slow down.
So there is a component of the market out
there right that the weather actually does
kind of control it a little bit, and maybe
we can beat it somehow.
The processing plants become flooded with animals. If they
don’t have the feed, they have to sell them,
but you can’t
sell them into abattoirs if the abattoirs are already
full. So you get a build-up of animals, so the cost of feeding them becomes
very high. So that’s how it impacts through
the supply chain, and farmers actually end
up losing money and in the end some of them
have started to lose their breeding stock
as well as their productive animals.
 
Climate change can result in farm-specific impacts, along with
regional, national, and global impacts. Impacts
such as heat stress, drought or flooding are
easy to identify. Others such as manure management
labor, pests, roads and bridges, are site
specific or species specific. Key is to pay
attention to the little things and use a systematic
way to identify vulnerabilities.
A systematic audit will include a listing
of the site specific weather trends, annual
and seasonal, followed by the impact these
trends might have on the farm operation.
Some might like to organize this information
in a table format. When doing this, try to list as much detail
about the potential impact - including economics
where possible. More detailed information
is useful when planning responses to protect
from or decrease the risk of these impacts.
Climate impacts on agriculture are nothing new
The difference now is that there are some real trends in
climate and weather that must be considered
in both short and long term farm planning.
