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Top Ten Ways to Manage Heat Stress in Your Show Animals – Sure Champ


Top Ten Ways to Manage Heat Stress in Your Show Animals
1. Be proactive. Watch the weather to keep your animals cool instead of trying to cool them down after they have heated up.
2. Provide adequate facilities. Give them a shaded area to avoid direct sunlight.
3. Make sure your facilities have good ventilation, and fans and coolers are working properly to get air moving.
4. Modify your feeding schedule. Just like humans, animals lose their appetite as the temperature rises. Feed them earlier in the morning and later in the evening when it is cooler outside.
5. Hydrate your animals. Make sure they have flowing, fresh water. Keep the water source out of direct sun so your animals aren’t drinking hot water.
6. Rinse them down! It is a good idea to rinse your animals thoroughly throughout the heat of the day to decrease their core body temperature
7. Prepare them for show-like temperatures. It is important to begin the acclimation process a week to 10 days before a show, gradually increasing the temperature of the cooler room or barn, so they are more used to the warmer temperatures when they get to the show.
8. Travel when it is cool. As the summer days heat up, consider traveling to your shows in the evening or night when it is cooler.
9. Keep on a schedule. You’ve arrived at the show, and want to be with your friends, but it is important to keep your livestock on a similar feed and rinsing pattern to the one you had them on at home.
10. Give them Sure Champ® Climate Control Paste. Lower their body temperature by increasing blood flow in a safe, fast and natural way.  Keeping livestock on the paste through the show has proven to keep them more relaxed, cool and comfortable, resulting in better appetite and higher energy levels allowing them to look their best on show day.