Staff photos by Harry Lynch

Jeremy McCain, 24, herdsman for Maple View Farm off Dairyland Road, hoses down the backs of some of the Holstein herd waiting near the milking parlor.

ORANGE COUNTY -- This atomic summer heat wave does not do much to inspire gratitude.

Still, as you squint in pain and suffer the brain-cooking sun, be thankful you're not a cow.

People's sweat glands work hard to keep them cool. Cows' glands don't.

The difference can be lethal.

"She was producing alright," said Maple View Farm co-owner Bob Nutter of a recent casualty. "But then she just went out there, laid down and died."

On most farms with cattle -- there are more than 30 in Orange County -- death by heat is rare. It's more often just a drain on the bottom line.

Milk-producing cows, heavy with pregnancy, don't produce as much under heat stress.

"Compare it to a pregnant woman," said Don Johnson, owner of Bacon Farmlands outside Hillsborough. "She can't stand out in the heat when she's eight months pregnant either."

In searing heat, cattle raised for beef prefer lounging in the shade to grazing. That means they don't grow.

So what can farmers do about it?

Hose 'em down. The 150 or so Maple View cows are sprayed with water as they gather to feed. Fans circulate air in their pens.

Johnson is planning to open up a pond to his livestock. For now, he just makes sure their water tubs are full.

Contrary to popular belief, cattle do have sweat glands, said Mark Alley, clinical instructor at North Carolina State University veterinary school. They just don't work as well as the human version.

"Cows never get to the point where sweat is just pouring off them," Alley said.

They can fight heat by breathing rapidly, he said, but they're also fighting a 101.5 degree average body temperature.

"The biggest problem is when they go 24 hours without cooling down," Alley said. "If they don't have that, they can't regulate their bodies."

Bob Strayhorn, who raises about 200 beef cattle in northern Orange County, said his cows don't even do much moving around or grazing until sundown.

He's even put off selling calves for now. Strayhorn doesn't want to compound a cow's shock of losing her young with the heat stress.

"That's just part of the business," he said. "We try to make them comfortable as possible. Just like human beings, they're looking for some shade and some water."

Contact staff writer Patrick Winn at 932-8742 or pwinn@nando.com.

Jeremy McCain, herdsman for Maple View Farms off Dairyland Road hoses down some of the Holstein herd waiting near the milking parlor Tuesday afternoon to be milked. McCain said that when the temperature hits 90 degrees, he starts hosing down the tops and sides of the 140 dairy cattle one by one as they come to be milked and then again as they leave, to help cool them down in the summer heat.

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