When it comes to finding a shelter for your horses and livestock animals, it’s best to keep it simple. While it’s important to keep them sheltered and protected, it’s most beneficial to provide animals with the ability to move freely in and out of a structure that offers sufficient ventilation and cross breeze. Learn more about the best livestock shelter options for healthy and happy horses at home.
Why a Barn Isn’t Always the Best Shelter Option
When you picture a home for your horses, you probably expect they’ll need a large barn or enclosed stable to retreat to for sleep and shelter. And while these units are great for sheltering livestock after hours, they’re not adequate to keep animals out of the heat and sun during the daytime. In fact, constantly confining your horse in a stall such as this can be detrimental to their physical and mental health.
Barns can easily become stuffy and unsanitary. Low ventilation exposes horses to dust and bacteria from their feces, feed, and bedding which leads to mucus and respiratory inflammation. Such confinement can have a negative impact on your equine’s colon and intestinal health because of their limited mobility much of the day. Even confining ponies can cause negative effects during growth and development, increase the risk of injury, decrease performance, and more.
Even if your animals spend a lot of time outside their barn or stall, an expensive barn or enclosed structure isn’t always necessary. Horses, for example, naturally enjoy wide open spaces, and they tolerate both heat and cold fairly well. In fact, equine expert Nancy Ambrosiano explains, “Horses conserve body heat efficiently and, therefore, need less shelter than we think they do.” (Source: The Horse) These animals typically just take shelter from strong winds or for shade.
No matter the size of your livestock farm, the same basic principles apply to running a successful operation. You need the right tools and solutions to care for animals, store feed and heavy equipment, and to provide the proper environment to grow crops. While there are a number of farm shelters for sale, it’s important to research and invest in the right cattle shade structures and multi-use sheds in order to protect your animals, crops, and equipment.
The Importance of Cattle Shade Structures
From horses to cows, sheep to goats, livestock can be adversely affected by the elements in every season. In the blazing heat or harsh winter wind, it is crucial to provide your animals with proper shelter for their wellbeing and performance. Just like protecting yourself from the sun’s harmful UV rays, you must do the same for your animals.
The impacts of heat: Did you know animals can get sunburns, too? Cattle shade structures are crucial to shielding animals from sun exposure that can even lead to skin infections. Aside from skin protection, proper sheltering can keep an animal’s temperature in check, preventing overheating and other health issues that can lead to more serious illness.
Wind exposure: Wind chills can have a profound impact on body temperatures in livestock during winter cold snaps. Cattle shade structures provide a respite from harsh winds, which will in turn keep animals safer
Caring for horses or other livestock? Find out why a livestock shelter is crucial to maintaining animal and horse health, particularly in the summer season.
How Hot Weather Affects Horse Health
Horses cool off just like humans do – by sweating. Yes, it's true! Horses have sweat glands much like humans. Just like us, horses sweat when they generate energy. Unlike (many of) us, however, horses spend most of their time creating energy outside, which in turn generates heat. Since horses spend so much of their time generating heat outside, you can imagine why it's important that they be able to cool down easily and quickly.
So if horses spend their time generating heat, how does the hot summer weather affect their health?
Without an easy way to cool down, horses can overheat which can be detrimental to their health. In fact, when horses cannot effectively cool off, they begin to show signs of overheating through dark urine, reduction in skin elasticity, lethargic behavior, high body temperature, and other indicators. Once they display such symptoms or reach internal temperatures of 105 degrees are higher, it's important to cool your horse off immediately. If not taken care of, the risk of heat exhaustion, heat stroke, or even death greatly increases.
Looking for the perfect Christmas gift ideas for beloved family and friends?
ShelterLogic Group has a wide array of brands with a broad offering of holiday gifts for all types of people in your life. From Gardening Grandkids, to yor New-Homeowner Niece, to Camping Cousins, to your DIY Dad: we've got all the great Christmas gifts you'll need to complete your 2020 holiday shopping.
Every farm, big and small has essential equipment that makes a farmer’s life easier and contributes to a successful season. But beyond that, these must-have agriculture tools increase output and benefit lives of the farmer and animals alike. Items like livestock shelters and greenhouses will enhance your ability to get the most out of your land. Here are some affordable farm supplies to add to your toolkit on the farm. However, many types of farming supplies can get expensive. Finding affordable farming supplies and solutions is often important for farmers to help them keep costs down, while simultaneously improving their output and efficiency in both farming and livestock cultivation.
Affordable Farm Supplies for Increasing Crop Yield
Some of the most useful farming supplies that help growers extend the amount of time they can cultivate crops are greenhouses. Some farmers may even choose to start certain crops in the greenhouse before transplanting. A greenhouse kit with a smaller footprint can help farmers in multiple different ways.
“You can continuously be producing crops if you have a market for it,” says Kimberly Moore, PhD, Professor of Environmental Horticulture with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences.
Moore says farmers already know how to maximize their yield in the field. But a greenhouse kit could allow farmers to continue to grow the crop when it can’t be in the field due to weather conditions. “If they have a niche market, they can be growing herbs for a local restaurant and create a specialty greenhouse,” she said.
Smaller kits can also act as a trial period for farmers who haven’t tested a commercial greenhouse, but may expand in the future. “I suggest buying small first and really learn how to grow in one and control the light and humidity to maximize the effect,” Moore said.
While there’s not much better than riding on a beautiful summer day, too much heat can be dangerous for horses. Caring for horses in warmer weather requires paying extra attention to their needs to prevent serious health and performance issues. Read on to find out how to keep your animals hydrated, healthy, and happy all season long.
What Happens When Horses Overheat?
Horses release heat through sweat just like us. However, their bodies are much more effective at keeping themselves warm than cooling themselves down. Whether racing or galloping through fields, these animals can have difficulty cooling off when exerting high energy for prolonged periods of time, especially on a hot or humid day. Significant heat stress can potentially be fatal for many horses if not monitored. Here are a few warning signs of an overheated horse to watch out for:
Get reliable shade and shelter where your animals need it most
We’ve studied the needs of livestock and equine ranchers, farmers and hobbyists, and found that one of the biggest challenges lies in the ability to provide reliable shade and shelter for animals anywhere in the field.
The Corral Shelter Livestock Shade: Innovation in Equine
Through the years ShelterLogic has manufactured a variety of equine shade and shelter products that provide reliable protection from the elements – but most of these have been designed to remain stationary.
Our latest initiative was to develop a shade that is functional, durable, and with increased portability: one that would be different from our line of Run-In Sheds, but would maintain the same level of quality engineering as our line of equine products.
Canada
