10/09/08 Climate change; livestock impact

Global warming could not only affect crop production in this country it will impact livestock too. US Department of Agriculture researcher Doctor Jerry Hatfield recently told some of his colleagues that temperature change affects animals in the same way we are affected. HATFIELD "You tend not to want to eat. You tend to behave differently. You sweat. You do a number of different things. Animals pant. When you think about an animal that's producing meat, milk or an animal that's producing eggs there is an impact of these high temperature extremes on productivity." Hatfield says research shows that increasing global temperatures and the rise in carbon dioxide can reduce forage quality. HATFIELD "The interactions between carbon and nitrogen within a plant change the amount of protein that's within a forage as it impacts upon digestibility so you start thinking about range land or pasture land crops out there is that their carrying capacity, how many animals you can put per unit of land area out there may become reduced." That means it will take more forage to be able to sustain those animals. Hatfield told a climate research group that global warming over the next 30 years will be yet another challenge for livestock producers. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott