A pig’s ideal temperature is 65 degrees Fahrenheit. So on a 90-degree day in the middle of July, Phil Borgic keeps a close eye on his herd.

“A pig can’t sweat,” he says. “So the only way that it can transfer the heat is by panting.”

The air is humid and heavy with the smell of manure on Borgic Farms in Raymond, Illinois. Although the pigs aren’t panting yet, Borgic, the farm’s owner, turns on eight massive cooling fans with six-foot blades designed to suck the hot air out of the long barn. If it gets hotter still, he says it’ll be time to turn on the sprinklers.

“Pigs can't talk to us, but we can listen to them, and we can do that by...observing their habits,” Borgic says.

Their habits have changed over the years, he says, and he’s had to react accordingly.

“As we went through time, our fans kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger to pull more air through and over the top of the pigs and to get that heat out of there,” he says. “In the beginning we didn't add water, and so as we learn, we started adding that sprinkle water then to help cool them off some more.”

As summers heat up due to climate change, Borgic says he’s invested thousands of dollars in new systems and technologies designed to protect his animals from the dangers of heat stress. And he’s not alone.

Not only is keeping animals cool essential for their comfort and safety, but it’s also important for their productivity.

Borgic says pigs don’t eat when they’re too hot, so it takes longer for them to hit their target harvest weight.

The same goes for cows, says Mississippi State University professor Amanda Stone, whose research focuses on heat stress in dairy cattle.

Read the full article about keeping animals cool by Dana Cronin at Harvest Public Media.