Heat Day 5

We were pleasantly surprised when we walked out of the house this morning and found it almost pleasant with a slightly lower humidity but mainly it was in the mid 70's with a breeze.  I was glad to see the calves had drank water over night.  The new calf is doing well, at least as far as health goes.  She is a calf that would never survive on her own since she can't stand still and loses the nipple all the time.  She is a puttery drinker but with this weather I am making sure I know exactly how she is acting.    Joe came this morning and again we all milked.  Joe prepped, I post dipped and bedded and whoever was free moved milkers.  Cows don't read the maual so at times we are all 3 standing around and sometimes 4 cows get done at the same time. By the end of milking the heat was building again.  Bruce had an appointment in town so Joe and I took care of the final details.  Shortly after we were done I got a phone call  from our fire department offering water misting if needed to keep the cows cool.  What an amazing offer from our small town fire department!  We have our own well and have always had a good supply of water but some farms aren't quite that lucky.  Our well is 375 feet deep and we have never run short of water, thankfully!  I got home and checked the cows in the middle of the afternoon and some were breathing hard but no one was panting.  By about 5 the humidity dropped to 60% for a little while so we took advantage of the breeze and hosed the cows down.  It doesn't take much water on their backs to cool them off and many were back eating within 15 minutes.  By the time we got done milking it was again 85 degrees with 79% humidity with a really nice breeze.  The cows should have a decent night.