Cattle farmers sometimes hire chillers (large, powerful cooling machines) to keep their saleable produce stored at the right temperature. In spring and summer, organisers of agricultural events, such as big county shows and smaller regional shows, also rent chillers, to keep valuable cattle cool in the holding pens and the main arena. It’s not that surprising when in the UK, individual cattle can be worth over £1,000, depending upon the cow’s breed, age and productivity and prime breeding cows reach six figure sums (according to the Livestock Auctioneers Association.).
Agricultural events – ‘shop windows’ for cattle farmers
In the UK the agricultural shows and events calendar gets busier each year. The Devon County Show, The Royal Cornwall Show, The Great Yorkshire Show, The Royal Norfolk County Show (and many others) is where the business of farming is showcased. Each show is a shop window for the county's locally produced food and drink.
Along with thousands of members of the public; farmers, herdsmen, retailers and other professionals use the shows as an opportunity to see the best dairy and beef livestock, equipment, products and services available in the UK market. Farmers promote their own businesses there: showing their cattle, seeking to impress, to network and make connections in the industry. All this can often result in sales on the day and boosted trade later.
It is essential, therefore, that their cattle look and feel healthy. One of the biggest threats to this is heat stress.
How cows can be affected by heat
Whilst cattle do have a fairly large ideal environmental temperature range, cows that are simply too hot can:
be unable to produce milk (high-producing cows are most sensitive to heat stress because of their high feed intake)
have difficulty in becoming pregnant
be susceptible to heat stroke, which can sometimes cause death. While cattle dying from heat stress is more common in the USA and South America than in the UK, it is still a threat here every summer [particularly in more enclosed spaces], and something farmers need to protect their cattle from
With all this, it is understandable that hiring chillers from a good chiller hire company, to keep livestock cool, is an option that agricultural event organisers (and the cattle farmers themselves) are grateful for.
About chiller specialists
Rented chillers are basically massive air-conditioning units – incredibly powerful cooling machines that provide volumes of cool air that air conditioning units simply cannot. Some chillers possess the capacity to cool large-sized buildings, such as huge office blocks and high-production dairies, etc. What is good about portable chillers is that they can be rented temporarily (for both indoor and outdoor use).
So, at a county or regional show, organisers can cost-effectively lease chillers for the event’s duration only, without having to heavily invest in chiller units that will basically be unused for a great part of the year (creating an additional problem of where to store them in between events and the event season, which runs from May to September).
The best chiller rental specialists have depots all over the country (stocked with a full range of modern chiller models). This means agricultural event organisers anywhere in the country can have the most suitable chiller units they need delivered quickly, from a local supplier.
Farmers must have confidence in event organisers
UK cattle farmers are already among the most efficient in the European Union, with breeding, feeding and management improvements seeing average milk yield per cow increasing year-on-year over the past decade, according to industry trade publication, The Farmers Guardian. The dairy and beef industry is still highly competitive, however. County and regional shows are an essential part of every cattle farmer’s business. But if there is a risk of heat stress to their herds at the shows, farmers will understandably be reluctant to attend.
For event organisers being able to source temporary chillers from a good chiller hire company quickly, easily (and surprisingly affordably) means they can virtually guarantee that the right environmental conditions for livestock will be provided on site.
Article submitted by Carl Webb, Specialist Hire Director at Andrews Sykes. Andrews Sykes is the UK's largest specialist in chiller rental services to the agriculture and events hire industries. Andrews Sykes provide chillers to virtually all industry sectors using machinery sourced from the world’s top manufacturers.
