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Protect livestock from heat and cold

Livestock mainly need to be safe from heat stress and cold stress. They should also be protected from extreme weather changes, like storms. This is a requirement under the Animal Welfare Act 1999.

Deciding how much shade and shelter is suitable for your animals is complex. Animals adapt to their environment and will have different needs at different times of the year.

Owners and people in charge of animals need to provide shelter and protection.

Find out more

Codes of welfare

Animal Welfare Act 1999 – New Zealand Legislation

Types of livestock shelter

Shade and shelter include more than just trees. It can also be natural features of the land (like gullies and hills), shade cloth, or barns and buildings.

As well as permanent shelter, farmers can use short-term solutions to protect animals from heat and cold stress. For example:

  • extra feed helps animals keep warm in winter
  • shearing sheep with a cover comb can help them manage in very hot or cold weather
  • more water can help animals keep cool in summer (for example, in the yard and at races)
  • sprinklers can help reduce heat stress
  • altering farm management practices such as mustering and milking times to reduce heat stress.

Find out more

Benefits of shelter and shade for sheep and cattle – Beef+Lamb NZ  

Managing heat stress in dairy cattle – DairyNZ

Tree planting resources for dairy farms – DairyNZ

A video about trees for shade and shelter – Farm Forestry New Zealand

Heat stress during transport

Heat stress occurs when an animal’s body temperature rises to a point where they are unable to regulate and maintain their normal body temperature.

While animals can tolerate a range of temperatures, to ensure their welfare animals need to be placed in environments that minimise the risk of heat stress. For example, the comfortable temperature range for a cow is between 4°C and 20°C.

Having a good plan and effective communication between farmers, stock agents, and transporters is key to ensuring animals complete the journey fit and well.

Signs of heat stress can include:

  • lethargy
  • excessive panting and increased breathing rate
  • drooling and bright red gums
  • crowding around the water trough
  • increased water consumption
  • less time spent grazing
  • seeking shade
  • restlessness.

How to manage heat stress during transport

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Research on the provision of shelter

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) commissioned research to find out what can prevent farmers from providing enough shelter for their pastoral farm animals. The research found that the main barriers were:

  • time
  • costs and resources
  • the effect shelter could have on farm productivity
  • how much information about shelters was available.

Providing shelter is part of good farming practice and the research found that while some farmers thought their shelter could be better, they had other, more urgent demands on their time and resources.

The research report and summary

Expectations of pastoral animal shelter among farmers, stakeholders and the general public [PDF, 3.2 MB] 

Summary report: Barriers to the adoption of animal welfare standards – shelter on pastoral farms [PDF, 322 KB]

Note: The summary is a paper published in the New Zealand Society of Animal Production 2019 conference proceedings.

Research on heat stress in sheep

MPI has commissioned research to investigate the impacts of heat stress on sheep in pastoral systems. This includes understanding the behavioural signs exhibited by sheep, and how these relate to environmental conditions such as temperature, humidity, and solar radiation. The project runs until early 2024.

An early milestone of this multi-year project is a literature review of the effects of heat stress on sheep.

Effects of heat stress on the health, production and welfare of sheep managed on pasture [PDF, 2.1 MB]

Further documents will be published as they become available.

Thermal stress summary for dairy cattle, beef cattle, sheep, and deer

A paper has been prepared to summarise current knowledge of both heat and cold stress on production animal species (dairy and beef cattle, sheep, and deer) in New Zealand.

The paper discusses the signs and impacts of thermal stress and the relevance of thermal stress in New Zealand on-farm, during transport or at saleyards, and processing premises.

Thermal stress summary for dairy cattle, beef cattle, sheep, and deer in Aotearoa New Zealand [PDF, 1016 KB]

Who to contact

If you have questions about shelter requirements for farm animals, email info@mpi.govt.nz

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