NorCal farmers take precautions, keep animals cool

Farmers fear 2006-like conditions

 UPDATED 7:48 PM PDT Jul 01, 2013
MODESTO, Calif. (KCRA) -

Inside the JS West chicken farm, 151,000 chickens stand side-by-side. They may look hot and flustered, but they're not.

"We built these houses so it can be 20 degrees cooler than (the) outside temperature," said Tom Silva, vice president of JS West.

The chicken farm keeps the inside of its facility, on average, at 80 degrees year round, Silva said.

The farm has 36 fans and cool cells that run water through its system around the clock, blowing cooler air inside. It also has a backup power generator in case of an outage.

"If they get too hot, they stop eating," Silva said. "Once they stop eating, they don't get enough nutrients and they stop laying eggs."

Chickens don't have to stay as cool as dairy cows.

Dairymen such as Justin Gioletti said his fans and soaking system automatically turn off when it hits 75 degrees outside. He and other dairymen know the importance of keeping their cows comfortable to produce milk.

They are fearful of extreme weather changes, like in 2006, where 26,000 cows died statewide -- prompting a disaster relief for those affected.

Dairymen said there wasn't much they could do to keep some of their animals well during the heat storm.

Gioletti lost 20 that year. He said this heat wave, thankfully, is not nearly as bad, but he's still taking precautions.

"(The) idea behind (a) soaking system is that it completely saturates the cow's body with water," Gioletti said. "(It) allows her to cool. Water evaporates off of her -- that's how they cool." 

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