#21 | Stop Treating Heat Stress. Start Preventing It.

Heat stress is a big topic, and a big part of that is rumen health, their feed intake, their milk production, and those all lead on to negative impacts. If they go off feed, everything else goes off as well. She's not producing the same amount of milk or the same quality of milk that directly hurts the weight gain on that calf, right? Yeah, and finally, ultimately it goes right to the bottom line. Going to cost you one way or another. Your cow is running into a lot of heat stress and they're not breeding up as good, they're not producing as much milk, they're not giving you the weaning weights. A lot of people think of heat stress as, oh, let's treat that symptom. But when a cow is heat stressed and she goes off feed, there's a much bigger problem at play. That is step one. Step two is anything we can do to improve circulation, put ingredients in there, flow increases. You get more blood to the extremities of the animal. That's a big determining factor on how cool that cow is gonna stay. Welcome back to that ranching podcast. Trevor Greenfield and Daryl Paskewitz here today. We're gonna talk a little bit on heat stress. Daryl, kick us off. Yeah. Heat stress is a big topic, isn't it? Especially in the summertime. See, run into a lot in January in Minnesota. Every year, we get questions about it, and it's a factor that impacts the performance of cattle, doesn't it? And at the end of the day, what we're wanting to combat is the negative effects of it. You've got an animal that experiences very high heat and humidity, and then they start to you start to see symptoms of heat stress. And a big part of that is the rumen health, their feed intake, their milk production, and those all lead on to negative impacts, don't they Trevor? Yeah, well you've often spoke, Daryl, about rumen function, which we know so well with Nutrizorb, having a functioning rumen that's breaking down your forge and you got that balance. And that is key to heat stress in itself. A lot of people think of heat stress as, oh, let's treat that symptom. But can you maybe walk us through more, what is the cause and what else are we doing besides just adding, you know, like say some miracle drug or miracle ingredient for heat stress? Like you mentioned, the first thing we want to do is make sure those cattle don't go off feed. Of course, in the beef industry we don't necessarily measure the amount of feed they eat every day, do we? The dairy industry does and they can see it by the hour. But it works the same in whatever type of cow you're running, in that if they go off feed, everything else goes off as well. Maybe they're needing to put on body condition or they're needing to cycle because we're trying to get them bred back or we're trying to get them to produce milk. As soon as they go off feed, all of them spin off effects are detrimentally impacted. If we can provide nutrients and digestion assistance to keep that cow on feed, that is step one. Step two is anything we can do to improve circulation. We can put ingredients in there to further improve vasodilation and then a big word. He just said a big word. What does it mean? If you're going improve vasodilation, that means you're going to have to do something to increase blood flow. Vaso is blood vessel, dilation is make it bigger, kind of like you get your eyes dilated, which I never enjoy. I've never done that before. So think of it as a garden hose. If you have a restricted garden hose, it's harder for the water to flow through it and you have higher pressure. And if it's bigger, dilated, then you have easier flow and lower pressure. So think of a cow. First of all, I love to, you know, we love the effects of Nutrizorb where we're pulling more out of every mouthful. So we're helping that whole digestive efficiency. So now we've got extracted nutrients. And if we have a really healthy transportation mechanism to get it to all the organs, the immune system, the reproductive performance, all through the extremities of that cow, because we're affecting the transportation of those nutrients. So that's huge. But in handling stress, that cow can't sweat like a human. They manage stress by circulating blood and that's what cools the extremities of the body. And you know even one ingredient alone, powerful garlic package that we have in at a real high level in a Repel product or Fly-Bye, some of our formulas, that ingredient alone is extremely powerful on vasodilation, on increasing circulation. So there's a lot of individual ingredients that work together synergistically to give the outcome of better, more comfortable cows. Flow increases, you get more blood to the extremities of the animal. Out East Missouri, we hear of it quite a bit as a fescue toxicity. You know, guys worried, and that's really is when the blood flow is constructed to the extremities, which is, is that vasoconstriction, Trevor? It is. That's where you take a garden hose and now it's smaller in diameter. But I, you know, we're so passionate. We talked about the rumen and Nutrizorb and getting more out of every mouthful. So that's nutrient extraction, right? But now nutrient delivery is where the blood flow is able to take it to the organs, the reproductive organs, the extremities. And that kind of goes hand in hand with the whole digestion piece. Yeah, it does. And like you said, it's the same as some of the other negative ones that whether your blood vessels are constricting or dilating, then that's a big determining factor on how cool that cow is gonna stay. So Daryl, maybe walk us through a out on pasture middle of summer cows that are not suffering from heat stress. How do they perform versus ones that are? Yeah, you're gonna see these cows be way more comfortable and they're gonna be out grazing, they're gonna be eating feed and having a healthy rumen function, they're gonna be ruminating. And as a result, they're gonna be staying in better condition than a cow that's experiencing lots of heat stress. And as another result, they're going to be producing a lot more milk and a lot better quality. So really heat stress has a direct impact on weaning weights. Because if mama cow is heat stressed, her her digestive system is off kilter, she's not producing the same amount of milk or the same amount same quality of milk that directly hurts weight gain on that calf. Right? Yeah. And finally, ultimately it goes right to the bottom line. It's it's gonna cost you one way or another. Your cows running into a lot of heat stress and they're not breeding up as good, they're not producing as much milk, they're not giving you the weaning weight that you're hoping for, that's all costing you money at the end of the day. And to be clear, this isn't something that we just started doing this year. You know, we do hear of it a bit as other mineral companies and what have you maybe putting peppers or whatever in their mineral to help with heat stress. Which is not bad, but would you say a lot of times the industry focuses on trying to treat the symptom, you know, treat heat stress. Whereas we're trying to understand, wait, when a cow is heat stressed and she goes off feed, there's a much bigger problem at play. And that is the whole digestive system, which we work on 24/7. You know, getting more out of every mouthful, having that balance, having that good functioning rumen, it trumps just a little cure for heat stress, you know, it's more fundamental. What we do for digestion, we've been doing for twenty years, is helping that rumen function, is keeping that animal cool, then the digestive ingredients do have an effect on vasodilation to help with blood flow and ultimately keep those cows cool and keep weight on the calves and ultimately keep money on the bottom line. Do have anything to add for we? No. We've gone on long enough. Thanks again for joining us around the kitchen table for that ranching podcast. We'll see you next week.