Safety

How to Prevent Needlestick Injuries in Livestock Practice

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 15:30:03 GMT

Most injection injuries in food-animal practice never make it into an incident log. They happen, they sting and the work continues. But some of them are not minor. Some require urgent medical care, and recognizing which is which can prevent permanent damage.

Dr. Jeff Bender, veterinarian and director of the Upper Midwest Agricultural Safety and Health Center at the University of Minnesota, recently spoke on the significance of accidental self-injection as an underreported occupational hazard in livestock medicine. It can be common to continue working, assuming the exposure is harmless, but that assumption is not always correct.

Immediate Response: Slow Down and Assess

When a needlestick occurs, the first step is to stop. Do not finish the chute run. Do not assume it is minor.

Wash the wound thoroughly with soap and water and note the time of exposure. Identify the exact product involved, how much was injected and where. A superficial puncture through clothing is very different from a deep injection into a finger or thumb.

Bring the product bottle and label to medical care. Most physicians and emergency departments are unfamiliar with livestock pharmaceuticals. The clinical risk depends heavily on whether the product is oil-based, long-acting, hormonal, sedative or modified live.

As Bender emphasizes: “Make sure you grab the bottle, take this bottle with you to the urgent care or the clinic, and let them know this is what you got.”

Tetanus status should also be confirmed at the time of evaluation.

Certain exposures warrant immediate medical attention:

Oil-adjuvanted vaccines
Sedatives, such as xylazine
Hormonal products, such as prostaglandins

Further, if there is increasing pain, swelling, pallor or neurologic symptoms, medical attention is required. These are not wait-and-see injuries.

Not All Products Carry Equal Risk

The severity of a needlestick injury depends far more on the product than on the needle.

Oil-adjuvanted vaccines pose the greatest risk for local tissue damage. Oil-based products can trigger intense inflammatory reactions, increasing pressure within confined spaces like digits. Compartment syndrome, tissue necrosis and surgical intervention are real possibilities. Any digital injection with an oil-based vaccine should be treated as a potential surgical emergency until proven otherwise.

Sedatives present a different type of danger. Even small amounts absorbed systemically can lead to hypotension, respiratory depression, bradycardia or sudden collapse. Exposures involving sedatives warrant urgent evaluation and monitoring.

Bender shares a story highlighting how unpredictable animal behavior adds risk: “Recently, one of our residents had xylazine, and a rambunctious horse caused her to squirt it in her eye. She passed out, and luckily, she didn’t hit her head or anything.”

Hormonal products also deserve heightened caution. Prostaglandins and other reproductive hormones can have systemic effects and pose particular risk to pregnant individuals. What is a small dose for a cow can have meaningful physiologic consequences in a human.

Modified-live vaccines raise concerns about zoonotic potential depending on the organism involved, reinforcing the need for product-specific evaluation. Antibiotics and long-acting depot formulations are often underestimated. Allergic reactions, hypersensitivity and prolonged local inflammation are possible, particularly with depot products that extend tissue exposure time.

The guiding principle is simple: identify the compound before deciding the injury is minor.

Why Human Medicine May Struggle to Advise

Emergency physicians rarely encounter livestock vaccines or reproductive hormones. When a veterinarian or farm worker presents after an accidental injection, the provider may not know the formulation, adjuvant type or pharmacologic effect.

“Usually when I ask my physician colleagues this question… they really don’t have a clue,” Bender says.

Without clear product information, evaluation becomes guesswork.

This places veterinarians in the role of interpreter. Providing the exact product name, formulation and safety data sheet allows healthcare providers to assess risk accurately. Keeping that documentation accessible in clinic trucks or digital files is a simple and effective safeguard.

Prevention Starts Before the Stick

Injection injuries are often described as inevitable. In reality, many are predictable.

Fatigue at the end of processing days, poorly restrained animals and hurried recapping of needles are high-risk moments. Sedatives and oil-based vaccines deserve heightened procedural caution. For certain products, two-person administration may be appropriate.

Facility conditions also matter. Safe chutes, adequate lighting and readily available sharps containers reduce impulsive decision-making. A stocked first-aid kit everyone can locate is not optional. On many farms, especially those with newer employees or language barriers, safety training around injectable products may never have been formalized.

Risk reduction in this context does not require complex protocols. It requires intentional practice.

Key prevention points include:

Avoid recapping needles whenever possible
Ensure secure animal restraint before injection
Use appropriate needle length and gauge
Keep sharps containers accessible
Review high-risk drugs with staff before use

Take It Seriously

Food animal practice involves powerful pharmaceuticals administered in dynamic environments. Accidental injection is a predictable hazard of the profession.

The obligation is straightforward. Stop when it happens. Identify the product. Seek care when indicated. Build systems that reduce risk for the next time.

Needlestick injuries are not badges of experience. They are occupational exposures. And they deserve respect.

Asian Longhorned Tick Now Found in 19 States

Wed, 08 May 2024 13:08:21 GMT

Ticks are an issue beef and dairy producers and veterinarians contend with every year. But not all ticks warrant the description USDA offers for the Asian longhorned tick – “invasive pests that pose a serious threat to livestock.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in April 2023 that Asian longhorned ticks (ALT) have been found in 19 states: Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

When Bovine Veterinarian (a Farm Journal publication) first reported on ALT (Haemaphysalis longicornis) in 2022, it was in 17 states.

Since then, Indiana and Massachusetts have been added to the list.

ALTs Like To Feed On Cattle
The ticks, which originated in East Asia, feed on many hosts, including beef and dairy cattle. Large numbers of ALTs can infest a single host, impacting growth, performance and milk production.

ALT also carry Theileria orientalis (Ikeda genotype), a protozoal organism that causes disease in cattle by infecting red blood cells.

In some regions of New Zealand and Australia, for instance, the tick can reduce production in dairy cattle by an estimated 25%.

In extreme cases, an infestation of ALT can cause bovine deaths, due to blood loss.

An Ohio State University (OSU) assistant professor in veterinary preventive medicine, Risa Pesapane, found that to be the case in 2021. A farmer called OSU to report three of his 18 cattle, heavily infested with the ticks, had died.

“One of those was a healthy male bull, about 5 years old. Enormous. To have been taken down by exsanguination by ticks, you can imagine that was tens of thousands of ticks on one animal,” said Pesapane, in a press release developed by Emily Caldwell, OSU staff writer.

‘Huge Numbers’ Are Often Found
An analysis published in the Journal of Medical Entomology reveals that scientists gathered nearly 10,000 ticks in roughly 90 minutes in the Ohio cow pasture. As a result, Pesapane estimated there were more than 1 million ALT in the roughly 25-acre pasture.

“Where the habitat is ideal, and anecdotally it seems that unmowed pastures are an ideal location, there’s little stopping them from generating these huge numbers,” she said.

One of the factors that make the ALT so difficult to control is the females can reproduce asexually. Researchers say each female can lay up to 2,000 eggs at a time.

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service website says “it only takes a single Asian longhorned tick to create a population in a new location.”

Target Control Methods Early
Despite applications of pesticides, the ALTs were still present in the Ohio pasture in 2022, the following year, making them what Pesapane called a “long-term management problem.”

“For a variety of reasons, I tell people you cannot spray your way out of an Asian longhorned tick infestation – it will require an integrated approach,” Pesapane said in the news release.

“It would be wisest to target them early in the season when adults become active, before they lay eggs, because then you would limit how many will hatch and reproduce in subsequent years,” she added.

To learn more about how to control ALT, producers and veterinarians can tap into these two resources:

The American Association of Bovine Practitioners addresses control of ALTs in its Have You Herd podcast, which is available here .

Virginia Cooperative Extension offers the online resource, “Managing the Asian Longhorned Tick: Checklist for Best Management Practices for Cattle Producers.”

Wild Pigs Kill More People Than Sharks, Shocking New Research Reveals

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 14:43:28 GMT

Hogzilla or Jaws? More humans are killed annually by wild pigs than by sharks, a startling new study reveals. By slice, puncture, hook, and gouge, the global number of fatalities from wild pig attacks is rising by the decade.

Between 2014 and 2023, the average yearly number of fatal shark attacks worldwide was 5.8, while the average number of fatal wild pig attacks was 19.7. In 2024 alone, there have already been seven deaths from wild pig incidents.

According to groundbreaking research published in 2023, the number of humans killed by wild pig attacks steadily climbed from 2000 to 2019, for a total of 172 deaths—including a freakishly grisly fatality in southeast Texas.

“Most of the public doesn’t know the facts about wild pig attacks on humans,” says John J. Mayer, lead author of the study and wild pig research pioneer. “It’s not sharks, wolves, or bears that kill the most people—it’s wild pigs, and the numbers are consistently trending up.”

1,532 Attacks and 172 Deaths

In 1973, well before the global pig bomb exploded, Mayer began noting wild pigs’ capacity for habitat destruction. At a steady drip, he also heard anecdotes of pig attacks on humans. Although many of the stories initially could not be verified, by the 1990s Mayer accumulated a folder bulging with confirmed encounters, and in 2013, he published research detailing wild pig attacks.

(Farm Journal)

The public reaction to his findings surprised Mayer: “I got a significant number of negative responses from people who refused to believe wild pigs were dangerous. I had people telling me the stories of attacks on humans were pure nonsense. Interestingly, if you asked those same people about sharks, they would, to a person, say that sharks are dangerous.”

A decade later, after collating a global dragnet of sources with colleagues James Garabedian and John Kilgo, both USDA wildlife biologists, Mayer published Human Fatalities Resulting From Wild Pig Attacks Worldwide: 2000–2019 , and the report is packed with eye-opening detail: 1,532 wild pig attacks on humans from 2000-2019, resulting in 172 human deaths in 29 countries.

Of the 172 fatalities, 88% occurred in non-hunting circumstances; 77% of victims died due to blood loss; 86% of attacks occurred in daylight; 84% of victims were male and 62% of victims were adults; 38% of attacks involved farm workers engaged in agriculture; almost all attacks were by solitary pigs, except for 20 encounters featuring multiple pigs; and average pig size in each incident was 240 lb.

(Farm Journal)

“Tigers, Indian elephants, Nile crocodiles, and venomous snakes kill more people than wild pigs, but wild pigs are certainly worse than bears, wolves, and all shark species put together,” says Mayer, technical program manager at the Savannah River National Laboratory in Aiken, S.C. “Wild pigs are nowhere near the worst of the worst, but they’re far more dangerous than people believe.”

“These attacks can be horrific,” Mayer adds. “Typically, wild pigs don’t bother anyone if they don’t feel threatened, but they can deliver tremendous damage to the human body in a matter of seconds in a very gruesome manner. We found that in fatal attacks, 55% of people died on the scene. A wild pig is at the waist to knee range for most humans, and when pigs slash in that area, they do tremendous damage to the arterial system.”

Sincerely. Boars deliver stab-and-slash wounds, often around the groin area, with tusks that operate as nails and razors.

7x Predatory

Boar tusks are extremely sharp, with 60-70% of a canine enclosed in the jaw and roughly 1”-4” outside the socket. The upper and lower tusks rub against one another each time a boar opens and closes its mouth, honing the lower tusks into cutters via a perpetual sharpening process.

(Farm Journal)

“Boars punch holes with their tusks, making rough-edged slashes and gouges,” Mayer describes. “They can also break bones with a powerful bite. Sows have smaller tusks, proportionally almost like dogs, so a sow tends to bite, rather than stab or slash. Therefore, most fatal attacks are by males with large canines, and often to the inner leg and femoral artery. On top of that, they can run in short bursts up to 30 to 35 miles per hour.”

Mayer’s benchmark report makes clear that almost all fatal wild pig attacks are associated with defensive behaviors. However, he documented seven attacks “during which the pig’s behaviors appeared to be predatory.”

“If they can get their mouths around something, they’ll eat it. It’s rare, but without question, they sometimes attack unprovoked,” Mayer notes. “We found one case in India where a young girl was walking with her father when a wild pig emerged from brush, grabbed her and picked her up in its jaws, and carried her away. The father gave chase and caught up, but both the father and daughter ended up in the hospital and the little girl died from her wounds.”

“And then there was the 2019 case in Texas where a lady endured the worst,” he adds. “That case is as terrible as it gets.”

As in, maneater. Wild pigs as maneaters.

Feeding Frenzy

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, Nov. 24, 2019, arguably ranks as the most savage wild pig attack on record.

As caregiver at the home of an elderly couple living in rural Chambers County, Christine Rollins, 59, arrived to work at roughly 6 a.m., in clockwork fashion. Rollins parked a Chrysler sedan in the yard of the well-kept property, directly beside the driveway, and exited her vehicle. She likely was dead within minutes, partially consumed while alive.

(Farm Journal)

At approximately 7:45 a.m. law enforcement arrived at the property and found Rollins—5’1” and 130 lb.—on her back against the manicured lawn, 6’ from the Chrysler. Rollins’ clothing was torn away. A shirt and jacket were bunched high on her torso; pants and shoes were gone.

Her body, head to toe, was a roadmap of injuries—bites, punctures, and lacerations, including large portions of her legs devoid of flesh. Gone. Eaten.

Arriving on site as an investigation unfolded, nothing in Sheriff Brian Hawthorne’s 35-year southeast Texas career prepared him for the scene.

“I’d never seen anything like it in my life,” he recalls. “Miss Rollins was annihilated. A third of her body was mutilated and in ghastly condition. We could see that she’d been attacked by wild animals and we could see clear signs of hog rooting in the yard. The area around the property was rural and partially wooded, and the elderly owners told us they had major wild hog problems.”

“The owners also had two dogs outside, a 14-year-old Lab and a dachshund, a classic wiener dog. The Lab was extremely friendly toward us and was happy to see the deputies.”

(Farm Journal)

Designated as an “unknown death,” the incident automatically triggered a criminal investigation. Hawthorne reserved judgement, pending an autopsy.

The autopsy was telltale.

“It was tragic. Miss Rollins bled to death,” Hawthorne says. “She had wounds over her whole body, but the lower extremities were horrific. People tried to attribute the attack to dogs, but the evidence was clearly to the contrary. The pathologist found no canine bites on the body. There certainly were bites and tusk marks of all sizes and different widths, but they were made by hogs. Material was sent to labs for DNA testing, and those results confirmed the wild hog attack.”

“It can only be speculation, but we believe she exited her car while the wild pigs were coming around the house,” he continues. “Initially, she was an obstruction, but then became the center of a feeding frenzy by multiple adult hogs and multiple juveniles of various sizes. I’d compare it to the frenzy of domesticated pigs when slop is dumped in a pen, or the frenzy normally associated with sharks at feeding.”

(Farm Journal)

Glaringly, the 2019 wild pig attack in Chambers County accords with Mayer’s research and study. “Every part of me wishes Christine Rollins’ death was attributable to something other than wild hogs, but every bit of evidence says it’s not so,” Hawthorne concludes. “This attack was an exception, but I tell people all the time: Wild hogs are problematic and a danger to be around. Period.”

No More Skeptics

Why do most of the attacks and deaths from wild pigs go unnoticed? Over half (51%) of all fatal pig attacks occur in India, followed by China (8%), with the U.S. well behind at six recorded fatalities in the past 100 years, as noted in Human Fatalities Resulting From Wild Pig Attacks Worldwide: 2000–2019 .

(Farm Journal)

However, the attack rate is trending up everywhere, Mayer says. “In the last 30 years, the global wild pig population has exploded, and we expect encounters to climb alongside, and now the news media is also catching up and the data is more available. In America, for example, I’m certain there were more wild pig fatalities in the past century, but those accounts were never documented. No doubt, there are more lost in family histories.”

In the early 1970s, when Mayer first began giving presentations on wild pig expansion, he was met with puzzled looks and a frequent question: “Why study an animal with no relevance?”

(Farm Journal)

Fifty years later, with the U.S. wild pig population ballooning to 7 million, and annual damage to the agriculture economy at $1.5 billion, according to USDA estimates, no one questions Mayer over the impact of wild pigs.

“You hear about shark attacks all the time in the news, but you almost never hear about wild pig attacks. I hope our study increases awareness about wild pigs and makes people more cautious,” he says. “Wild pig attacks are rare and fatal attacks are rarer, but the rate is still much, much higher than people think—high enough to place wild pigs over sharks in cause of death.”

Sincerely. By the numbers, Hogzilla defeats Jaws.

For more articles from Chris Bennett ( cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:

Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told

American Gothic: Farm Couple Nailed In Massive $9M Crop Insurance Fraud

Priceless Pistol Found After Decades Lost in Farmhouse Attic

Cottonmouth Farmer: The Insane Tale of a Buck-Wild Scheme to Corner the Snake Venom Market

Tractorcade: How an Epic Convoy and Legendary Farmer Army Shook Washington, D.C.

Bizarre Mystery of Mummified Coon Dog Solved After 40 Years

While America Slept, China Stole the Farm

Take a Buddy with You to the Bunker

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 14:38:04 GMT

Feed-out of new-crop corn silage has begun on most dairies, and it appears this crop may be more prone than normal to silage collapses.

Jordan Hunt, PAS, a northeast Iowa-based consultant with GPS Dairy Consulting, LLC , noted in a recent blog post that producers are reporting regular avalanches of a day’s worth or more of feed from the feed-out faces of silage bunkers and piles.

Hunt cautioned producers and their crews to be mindful of the safety hazards that silage can create. “Use a buddy system when working near the pile and managing the plastic,” he advised. “In the event something happens, one person can call for help.”

He also advised defacing silage so the top of the face is pitched back 2-3 feet from the base. “Undercutting” silage piles can lead to hanging shelves at heights as high as 30 feet, which Hunt reminded are up to 65% moisture, and thus very heavy and prone to collapsing.

Defacing a precise volume each day is also important. Hunt said if the amount for the day is short, avoid using a loader bucket on the face to grab a little more. “Either deface more, or if space allows, do a side-scrape with a wheel loader bucket,” he suggested.

If this year’s crop is showing instability, Hunt advised re-evaluating packing procedures next year, with a packing density goal of greater than 20#DM/cu. ft.

The late Keith Bolsen, silage expert and staunch advocate of silage safety from Kansas State University, promoted the rule-of-thumb to never stand closer to the silage face that three times its height. To safely collect samples, he advised staying away from the face and pulling samples instead from a loader bucket or sample pile that has been moved a safe distance away from the feed-out face.

Lallemand Animal Nutrition developed a comprehensive silage safety handbook authored by Bolsen, which addresses additional bunker and pile safety measures, along with safety education on silage harvest, equipment operation, and dangerous gases.

“I think we all understand the danger associated with this [silage collapses and avalanches],” stated Hunt. “But I do want to remind us all that it can happen in split second, and can be deadly.”

For more on silage, read:

Poor Air Quality from Wildfire Smoke can put Livestock, Pets at Risk

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 19:02:11 GMT

Wildfire smoke from Canada returned to the upper Midwest and extended to the Mid-South and Mid-Atlantic this week, resulting in poor air quality in some regions along with reduced visibility.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a report on Wednesday, saying “wildfire smoke from Canada will reduce air quality over parts of the Upper/Middle Mississippi Valley, Great Lakes, Western Ohio Valley, Central Appalachians, and Mid-Atlantic, prompting Air Quality Warnings over the area.”

Unhealthy levels of pollutants from the smoke spread across states in those regions including most of Michigan and Wisconsin and parts of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, according to tracker AirNow.gov.

The NWS is encouraging anyone with underlying lung conditions or asthma – especially children and the elderly – to limit their time outdoors in those regions affected by wildfire smoke.

The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) advises monitoring pets and farm animals that could also be affected by the smoke.

“If you can see or feel the effects of smoke yourself, you also should take precautions to keep your animals – both pets and livestock – safe,” the AVMA encourages on its website.

Animals with cardiovascular or respiratory disease are especially at risk from smoke and should be closely watched during all periods of poor air quality.

Look for the following signs of possible smoke or dust irritation in animals, including:
• Coughing or gagging
• Difficulty breathing, including open mouth breathing and increased noise when breathing
• Eye irritation and excessive watering
• Inflammation of throat or mouth
• Nasal discharge
• Asthma-like symptoms
• Increased breathing rate
• Fatigue or weakness
• Disorientation or stumbling
• Reduced appetite and/or thirst

The wildfires range from British Columbia to Newfoundland and Labrador, and 239 were categorized by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) on Tuesday as being “out of control.”

Reuters reports that Canada is wrestling with its worst-ever start to the wildfire season, which has already burned 6.5 million hectares (16 million acres), an area a little bigger than West Virginia.

What We Now Know About What Caused the Large Fire at a Texas Dairy Farm

Fri, 14 Apr 2023 17:48:59 GMT

The Texas Fire Marshal is investigating what caused the large fire that broke out at South Fork Dairy in Dimmitt, Texas, earlier this week. However, industry and dairy experts say current information from officials show it was an accident.

The reported explosion occurred at South Fork Dairy, which is located just southeast of Dimmitt. According to Castro County Sheriff Sal Rivera, the explosion occurred around 7:20 p.m. on Monday. There are unconfirmed reports of how many cows died from the fire, but officials believe it’s close to 18,000.

pic.twitter.com/Wq4lxyKg1G
— Blake Bednarz (@BlakeBednarz) April 11, 2023

Dairy Management Inc. provided Farm Journal with a statement on behalf of the Texas dairy industry:

“We are deeply saddened for the family dairy, and everyone affected by the tragedy that occurred at South Fork Dairy farm. The cause of the fire is still under investigation, and we are deferring to the appropriate authorities to make that determination. Our thoughts are with the dairy family, their employees and local first responders, who are showing great resolve, courage and empathy while working through this tremendous loss.”

The Cloud of Black Smoke

Additional sources say if the explosion was big enough to catch any part of non-fire-resistant insulation on fire, then it would spread like wildfire across the entire building, which covers nearly 40 acres. That would also explain why the fire didn’t last long, because once the insulation was all burned, then the fuel to the fire would also be gone. Insulation not being fireproof would also explain why the building had so much black smoke.

(Farm Journal)

So, then what would cause the large mushroom cloud of black smoke? The building that caught fire was a recently built cross ventilated barn. Cross ventilated barns are typically large and have hundreds of fans to help control the climate with cow comfort in mind. With that many fans in a barn, it’s possible once the fire spread so quickly, the hundreds of fans within the barn blew out the smoke, creating such a big smoke cloud that could be seen from miles away.

Railey Silhan, who lives in Morton, Texas, says the cloud of smoke from the explosion could be seen from her area, which is 80 miles southwest of Dimmitt.

Community Pours in With Support for Dairy Farm Family

The community is already coming together to support a dairy farm family that’s now facing a loss on their family farm. Started just after the fire, a lunch/meal train was created to help support the family and crews on the scene. Local businesses and community members have already signed up, with two weeks’ worth of meals spoken for.

“They [Brand family] are a great family and customer, and today shows how we just help each other where we can. We live in a great community,” Elizabeth De Vries-Dykstra, who helped start the meal train, told Dairy Herd.

Heat Warnings Sweep Across U.S.: What You Should Know

Tue, 14 Jun 2022 20:37:49 GMT

This week, dangerous heat is sweeping across Texas to Wisconsin to Ohio to Georgia.

It’s particularly important to watch out for yourself and each other when heat indexes reach 91 degrees or higher, as referenced by the Mayo Clinic. The heat index is a value calculated with the outside temperature and humidity—which is important as in high humidity environments you can’t effectively sweat. This makes people more prone to heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

(Farm Journal)

Health experts say it can take several weeks to adjust to higher temperatures. With this sudden onset of wide-spread heat, it’s important everyone takes steps to stay safe.

Watch Out for Each Other

Iowa State Extension highlights how the signs of heat stress are often overlooked by the victim. As their report details, “The individual may at ﬁrst be confused or unable to concentrate, followed by more severe symptoms, such as fainting and/or collapsing. If heat stress symptoms occur, move the victim to a cool, shaded area, give him or her water, and immediately contact a supervisor or another individual to provide assistance.

8 Tips to Stay Safe Outside in Heat

Stay hydrated, which helps your body swat and keep a normal body temperature.
Eat light—but often.
Protect your skin. Wear hats with brims, sunblock, sunglasses. Reapply sunscreen every two hours (or more often if swimming or sweating.)
Wear loosefitting, lightweight clothing.
When possible, schedule activities in cooler part of day.
Take breaks
Take extra precautions with certain medications that affect your body’s hydration or ability to dissipate heat.
Be cautious if you have certain conditions or a history of previous heat illness.

To help everyone stay safe and be aware, Superior Ag Safety and Compliance Manager, Ryan Coleman, reminds everyone to make hydration and safety a priority in this video:

Safety

How to Prevent Needlestick Injuries in Livestock Practice

Immediate Response: Slow Down and Assess

Not All Products Carry Equal Risk

Why Human Medicine May Struggle to Advise

Prevention Starts Before the Stick

Take It Seriously

Asian Longhorned Tick Now Found in 19 States

Wild Pigs Kill More People Than Sharks, Shocking New Research Reveals

Take a Buddy with You to the Bunker

For more on silage, read:

Poor Air Quality from Wildfire Smoke can put Livestock, Pets at Risk

What We Now Know About What Caused the Large Fire at a Texas Dairy Farm

Read More: Large Explosion and Fire Breaks Out at South Fork Dairy in Dimmitt, Texas Monday Night

The Cloud of Black Smoke

Community Pours in With Support for Dairy Farm Family

Heat Warnings Sweep Across U.S.: What You Should Know

Watch Out for Each Other

8 Tips to Stay Safe Outside in Heat