Blog post 5 – livestock impacts
Direct Impacts
The most profound direct impacts on livestock health are due to the heat exchanges between the animal and its environment. Climatic changes cause changes in the ambient temperature which effect these exchanges. Unpredictable temperature exchanges cause fluctuations in bodily functions such as dairy production. This not only affects the animals themselves but also the farmers as they’re less likely to use dairy cows for example owing to yield unpredictability. (Boscche, 553; 2008)
The most profound direct impacts on livestock health are due to the heat exchanges between the animal and its environment. Climatic changes cause changes in the ambient temperature which effect these exchanges. Unpredictable temperature exchanges cause fluctuations in bodily functions such as dairy production. This not only affects the animals themselves but also the farmers as they’re less likely to use dairy cows for example owing to yield unpredictability. (Boscche, 553; 2008)
Indirect impacts
Indirect impacts can be seen mostly as changes that impact the quality and quantity of food and water available as well as disease prevalence. The effect on African regions becoming dryer is that crops will have reduced growing seasons which creates fundamental structural and functional changes in ecosystems. The issue can be compounded by more anthropogenic indirect impacts such as overgrazing and agricultural malpractice – all resulting in increased likelihood of desertification. Finally, and some could say most relevantly, water sources also become more sporadic and unpredictable. Climatic fluctuations significantly impact crop yields and therefore feed volume for livestock. (Boscche, 553; 2008) All these effects have been proven to affect livestock but to what extent and to what timescale is less specific. The yardstick seems to be 2050 as a point of relativity. However, the mentions of the importance of keeping more heat tolerant species of livestock is becoming paramount in some studies. Having talked to my uncle who is a dairy farmer - higher temperatures for example don’t favour dairy cows so populations of those may be selectively reduced and cattle taking their place. Moreover, some are even shifting away from cattle and towards goats and sheep due to their more weather resistant characteristics.
Indirect impacts can be seen mostly as changes that impact the quality and quantity of food and water available as well as disease prevalence. The effect on African regions becoming dryer is that crops will have reduced growing seasons which creates fundamental structural and functional changes in ecosystems. The issue can be compounded by more anthropogenic indirect impacts such as overgrazing and agricultural malpractice – all resulting in increased likelihood of desertification. Finally, and some could say most relevantly, water sources also become more sporadic and unpredictable. Climatic fluctuations significantly impact crop yields and therefore feed volume for livestock. (Boscche, 553; 2008) All these effects have been proven to affect livestock but to what extent and to what timescale is less specific. The yardstick seems to be 2050 as a point of relativity. However, the mentions of the importance of keeping more heat tolerant species of livestock is becoming paramount in some studies. Having talked to my uncle who is a dairy farmer - higher temperatures for example don’t favour dairy cows so populations of those may be selectively reduced and cattle taking their place. Moreover, some are even shifting away from cattle and towards goats and sheep due to their more weather resistant characteristics.
One must also consider more highland areas of Africa where livestock may be limited by cold rather than the more commonly discussed hotter temperatures – therefore livestock in these areas may actually benefit from increases in air temperatures. Exploring further into this relationship – there have been findings attesting to the fact that there may be a direct proportionality between rainfall and livestock in colder dry environments but not in warmer humid ones.
I want to elaborate further on disease as this is a climatic factor people don’t talk about as much as food and water. There is no doubt that climatic conditions and diseases are related. Although, it is always difficult trying to pinpoint climatic from non-climatic effects. We must also consider the effects climate change has on economically beneficial pests in Africa’s low and dryland areas. Striga Hermonthica is a weed (pest) that contributes significantly towards cereal yields for Sub-Saharan Africa. This weed is strongly affected by factors such as rainfall and temperature changes. (Niang, 1220) Interestingly it is predicted that central Africa may become more suited to the weed whereas areas of the Sahel become less suitable. Regional inequalities may be therefore exacerbated due to the effects of climate change. On the subject of pests – viruses from species such as the whitefly and ticks which also have detrimental effects on livestock. In line with Striga Hermonthica - climatic factors also effect virus and tick distribution with significant changes caused by 2 degrees of mean temperature change. However, as with most of these factors, one cannot assume/prove that climatic change is the sole cause of these distributional pattern changes. Factors such as habitat destruction and land use change need to be also considered – all anthropogenic I hasten to add…
Finally, there are human conflicts arising from climatic adaptation by livestock owners. National borders are known as porous and largely unguarded - as a result they are bisected and crossed by adapting herders and farmers practising some of the techniques mentioned above in order to maximise their adaptive capacity. (Muggah, 2019) These farmers can often be manipulated and marginalised by governments and business elites to smuggle drugs and weapons cross border which exacerbates violence and malice within the already difficult livestock industry. (Muggah, 2019) They are preyed upon due to their limited scope for other incomes thanks partly to the stresses and strains imposed upon their industry and surrounding industries from climatic change.
After writing this post I would like to do a little comparison between the livestock industry's impacts and those of the fishing industry. My observations are as follows: even though all these livestock impacts I have listed above are linked to the climatically induced fluctuations of water directly and indirectly. Surely in comparison, the very fact that fish are in water at all time and are therefore constantly being directly by it and the changes imposed on it make the fishing industry far more vulnerable to climatic fluctuations. Therefore I would say that this may explain why Africa's fishing industry seems to have a greater number of direct impacts whereas the livestock industry seems to have a higher proportion of indirect impacts.
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