In the heat of summer, putting shade in the pasture puts more milk in the tank.

Charles Fletcher and Brian Patton believe their heavy-milking Holsteins deserve some time in the shade on hot summer days.

Fletcher and Patton manage a 200-cow milking herd in Barry County, Mo., just south of Monett. From mid-February until the end of the year, the cows graze an everchanging variety of forages. And here on the open prairie, trees are few and far between. So, three summers ago, Fletcher designed and built a 20-by-20-foot portable shade for his cows on intensively grazed pastures. How well cows performed when they had access to shade convinced Fletcher and Patton to build four more of the portable structures.

"In extremely hot weather, cows with shade produce nearly 5 more pounds of milk per day than cows that are in the sun all day," said Fletcher. "One shade this size will accommodate 30 to 35 cows on pasture. We wanted to provide shade for the 200 cows we are milking.

"Actually, cows with access to shade do not drop back in hot-weather production as much," he amended. "Cows without shade drop in production by an average of nearly 5 pounds per day, compared with cows under shades."

For the main 8-by-20-foot frame of the portable shades, 2-inch steel box beams are welded together. Six-feet-wide hinged wings on either side are fashioned from 1-inch material. The whole framework is covered with Mylar mesh panels that screen out 85 percent of the sunlight. Mylar panels on the original pasture shade are still in use and in good shape.

When the wings are extended, the shade blocks the sun from a 20-by-20-foot area. With wings folded down, the structure is a road-legal eight feet wide.

"We mounted each shade on boat-trailer drums and wheels, for easy portability," said Fletcher. "We also built brackets to hold automatic waterers [Fletcher doesn't want his cows to walk more than 300 feet to get a drink], and welded trailer hitches on the front and rear ends of the shade. This lets us hook two or more shades in tandem and move them with an ATV four-wheeler."

Fletcher and Patton move cows to new grass twice each day, after morning and evening milkings. They have installed water lines with quick-connect couplings along fencelines separating grazing paddocks. When a portable shade is moved to a new grazing paddock, they simply attach a hose to connect the shade's waterer to the water line.

Fletcher also rigs a smaller hose, attached to sprinkler nozzles along the upper frame of the shade. On days when the mercury tops 90 degrees, he turns on the sprinklers.

"The nozzles put out a spray of small droplets, rather than a mist," he said. "I want to soak a cow's hair and let evaporation cool her down."

This year, he is attaching battery-operated lawn-sprinkler timers to the sprinkler hoses.

"When the spray nozzles run all the time, the ground under the shade gets pretty muddy," he explained. "By having a timer turn the water on and off intermittently, we get the same cooling effect on cows, without turning the ground into a loblolly. We're still experimenting with the proper on-off interval on the timer."

Fletcher and Patton have about $2,000 invested in each portable shade. Materials cost $1,100, including the portable waterer, and labor runs another $900.

"That sounds like quite a bit of money for a portable shade," Fletcher said. "But with each cow producing 4 to 5 pounds more milk each day, the economic benefit of a shade comes to $500 to $600 per month with today's milk prices. That doesn't take long to pay back our investment in building the shades. This year, we began using shades in May, when the temperature went into the mid-80s. In this area, shades are beneficial for 100 days or more each year."

Fletcher and Patton also press portable shades into off-season duty.

"In winter, we use one or two shades as windbreaks for calves," said Brian Patton. "We put a shade on the north side of calf pens, let one wing of the shade down and put big round bales up against it. It makes a good wind screen."

Learning how to best manage the temporary shades took some effort, Fletcher admitted.

"Timing is important," he said. "We turn cows on grass after the morning milking, then move the shades in after they have grazed for a while. If you wait until the cows have gotten hot to place the shades, the cows spend more time under the shade and less time grazing."

Fletcher and Patton have noticed other benefits to having shade in the pasture.

"If a cow stays up in production through summer, she will continue to milk heavier in the fall," said Fletcher. "And, when cows are cooler, they breed back quicker. There may also be some correlation with shade and pregnancy retention, but we cannot prove that yet."

"Having cows on pasture saves a lot of time and work," added Patton. "We haven't had to haul one load of manure since last August. The cows deposit manure on the pasture and not much is dropped in the barn."

"Shades are a definite benefit," Fletcher summed up. "But so is getting out with your cows twice a day."

Do beef cows need shade?