Joanne Nicklas reveals it’s exciting to think that in the nearest future, ranchers like her may not have to think about a constant shade or switching on sprinklers around the clock to cool their cattle in case summer temperatures soar as they did during B.C.’s last heat dome.
Nicklas and her husband run a small ranch in Whitecroft, a village located 20 kilometres northwest of Kamloops, B.C. Over the past three years, the couple has collaborated with Thompson Rivers University (TRU) on a research project focused on producing cattle that will not be affected by extreme heat effectively.
The couple partnered with TRU’s Professor of natural resource science, John Church, and crossbred Red Angus with Senepol, a breed of cattle from Saint Croix Island in the Caribbean Sea famous for its ability to withstand high temperatures owing to a unique slick gene.
The slick gene is a natural mutation that gives the cattle ability to grow shorter hair and regulate their body temperature by sweating more.
In her explanation, Nicklas said a dozen crossbred calves were born last spring, which showed distinctive physical characteristics compared to the Angus breed, like a thinner hair coat during the summer.
She said: “They’ve got a little bit of a pouch on their belly. They’re up earlier [and] they’re eating more in the heat compared to the other ones.”
Church says the hybrid cattle can withstand temperatures of at least 7 C higher than Bos indicus, a breed from the Indian subcontinent famous for its summer heat tolerance.
He says he was also shocked to find out that the Angus-Senepol hybrids can adapt equally well to winter temperatures.
He said: “[They] do, in fact, grow winter haircoat over the winter, so we’re quite excited about that.”
Church says he got funding for the research in 2020, just a year before some parts of North America were affected by the heat dome which caused the deaths of many livestock, including about 2,000 cattle that died in Kansas over high heat and humidity.
Church believes that summer temperatures could be as high as 50 C within the next decade, and he thinks that his cattle crossbreeding project could be of help to ranchers.
He said: “We believe we’ve created an animal that’s going to be much more climate-resilient and able to handle some of these climate extremes.”
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