ABSTRACT

Regional climates contain factors that need consideration in determining the kind of profitable livestock production for a region. The variability of weather and climate provides a component in determining the profitability of the livestock enterprise. Climate imposes both direct and indirect effects on commercial animal agriculture. Indirect climate events are those that impact on availability of forages and the supply of feed grains. These indirect impacts of the weather and climate are generally imposed by chronic deficit in water and occasional droughts. Literature has many examples of relationships between the performance of domestic animals and weather and climate events. Hostile climates do cause mortality to domestic livestock. This hostility occurs as a result of both heat and cold stress. R. C. Bolling presents analyses that document the weather impacts on cattle mortality under feedlot confinement. Boiling and G. L. Hahn and Boiling report the results of a regression analysis relating climatic variables to rates of gain for beef animals.