Livestock keepers pressed to brace animals for El Niño heat wave

With summer heat building under the influence of El Niño, livestock producers across Jamaica are being advised to act early to shield their animals from harsh conditions.

Khalil Brown, an animal nutritionist at Best Dress Feed Mill and an agricultural consultant, told THE STAR that the outlook is troubling. “We are estimating record peak temperatures, plus little humidity with the Saharan Dust. We are going to see some extreme heat. So farmers should be very concerned and be very prepared for what is to come, [for] especially in the summer months, we see a general increase in mortality,” he said.

A livestock farmer said last season’s heavy losses still weigh on him as temperatures climb again. “Mi very concern because the place a get hot and them can have heat stress and dead. Mi have to always have water for them or else wull heap a problem can happen,” he said.

Brown said heat stress stems from high temperatures combined with humidity, putting animals under heavy pressure that weakens both wellbeing and output. “What you have is a reduction in feed intake. So once animals are eating less, they don’t perform as well. Plus, it makes them more susceptible to any disease or any deficiencies that they might have. They start to fall short, and you start having these negative impacts,” he explained.

Having kept stock for seven years, the farmer said heat stroke claimed many of the animals he lost. “And it’s right across the board. The heat don’t good for them none at all. I have goat, pigs, chicken, turkey, and other poultry animals,” he said. “Last year, mi lose some pigs and about 250 chickens in the summertime, July to August.”

Keen to avoid a repeat, he has already put cooling steps in place. “Mi set ice and put in the chicken drum and then have water right throughout the day and then they have supplements you can put in the water,” he said.

Brown also cautioned that extended heat and drought leave pastures less nutritious, which hits grazing stock especially hard. “For ruminants, like cattle, goats and cows, the grass quality is now poor, so they’re not getting the nutrients they want from the grass, so you have to be supplementing. And with an animal under stress, you start to have some level of inflammation, so the body now is responding to a stress factor that makes the animal’s immune system poor. So the animal is more susceptible to disease,” he explained.

Trevor Bernard, former president of the Small Ruminants Association of Jamaica, said animals need richer, energy-dense feed and cooler shelter. “You will see the goats in a cool area breathing heavily or lying down on colder concrete. The heat affects production; it affects the forest. The heat affects the entire cycle of rearing from food is affected. The rabbits don’t usually get pregnant in this heat either,” he said. Bernard added that he has watched farmers place fans in goat houses to ease the heat.

Brown linked heat stress to sharp drops in farm output. “If you’re looking at boiler chickens, you start to see a reduction in egg production, and you start to see a reduction in the growth rate, same for cattle and goats. For dairy animals, you see a reduction in milk.”

He argued that sound facilities matter most when temperatures peak. “Some farmers who have money can do misting just to help add a little moisture in the air to help with cooling down the animals. That works for cattle and that works for even chickens,” he added.

For operators with tighter budgets, Brown outlined low-cost options. “You could paint the black tank white to reflect heat. The ice inside the water is a pretty good one, I think, that works. Put the tank underneath a shady tree. Like for chicken farmers, they normally try to keep the tarpaulins up. They need to drop those tarpaulins down completely so you can have that air flow going through and not much backed-up heat inside there.”