By Bart Biesemans, Caden Kipfmueller and Charlotte Van Campenhout<\/p>\n
BOCHOLT, Belgium, June 25 (Reuters) – Belgium issued a rare “red alert” for extreme heat on Thursday amid \u200ca days-long heatwave which has raised concerns about milk and meat production \u200cas livestock such as cows and pigs struggle with the scorching weather.<\/p>\n
Flemish farming association Boerenbond expects the \u200bheatwave to reduce both milk and meat production, though it is too early to give precise figures, a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
Sander Palmans, 35, director of the Agricultural Research and Education Center and a farmer in Bocholt near the Dutch border, said his cows and \u200cpigs were suffering from heat \u2060stress.<\/p>\n
While he uses cooling techniques such as fans to help the animals, the temperatures, which are expected to reach up to \u206040 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), are taking a toll.<\/p>\n
Palmans said his cows were less active, ate less and avoided lying down on the warm bedding, all leading to less milk \u200bproduction. \u200bPigs were also affected, with growth down by \u200babout 150 grams per day, \u200ccutting meat output.<\/p>\n
“The heat costs us between \u20ac150 and \u20ac200 a day,” or 10 to 15% of Palmans’ income, he said.<\/p>\n
The Flemish agriculture ministry said the heatwave across much of Europe was affecting mainly livestock farmers, as recent rainfall meant drought was not yet a major concern for crop producers.<\/p>\n
“Despite all the measures farmers are taking … you can \u200cstill see production declining,” said Mark Wulfrancke, a \u200bspokesperson for Belgian farmers’ association Algemeen Boerensyndicaat.<\/p>\n
In France, \u200bextreme heat killed hundreds of thousands \u200bof poultry, while reducing feed intake, increasing water demand and \u200ccutting milk output for cattle farmers.<\/p>\n
Palmans expects heatwaves \u200bto become more regular, \u200bwhich means more frequent use of artificial cooling systems. He said the inlet temperature for livestock housing might need to be reduced by as much \u200bas 8 C.<\/p>\n
“Today it’s \u200can investment for just a few days a year, but we see \u200bthat hot days are increasing,” he said.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Bart Biesemans, Caden Kipfmueller, \u200bCharlotte Van Campenhout; Editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Bart Biesemans, Caden Kipfmueller and Charlotte Van Campenhout BOCHOLT, Belgium, June 25 (Reuters) – Belgium issued a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,14196,14197,12162],"class_list":["post-23936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-extreme-heat","tag-milk-output","tag-production"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116811824194617616","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}