HEAT WAVE: Hot Weather Affecting Livestock

Like most farmers across Iowa, Craig Hill is sweating the weather.

“I think every farmer in Iowa right now is stressed,” says Craig Hill of Milo.

Hill is sweating his crops fearful there won’t be enough to make a decent profit.

“It will be an early harvest, it will be a complicating harvest and it will be a disappointing harvest,” says Hill.

Hill farms 1,000 acres of corn and 750 acres of soybeans.

However, he says when it comes to his livestock the price to feed them is on the rise.

“The stress of keeping these animals comfortable we all as farmers are working hard to do this we’re also paying about 36 percent more for our feed today than we did just a month ago in order to keep these animals healthy and growing,” says Hill.

Hill’s 1,200 hogs depend on his corn that just isn’t growing. 

Another concern is keeping his sows cool during this extended heat wave.

“We build these buildings that are heavily insulated we try to ventilate these buildings with fans and other aeration devices we also use water dripping water misting water anything that we can to help cool the pig,” says Hill.

Hill says even if he got an inch of rain per week it still wouldn’t be enough to produce a better than average crop this fall.