Hair growth is controlled by genetics and environment. Animals can only get as hairy as their genetics will allow, as long as the environment is conducive for growth. Contrary to popular belief, daylight (specifically lack there of), not temperature, is the biggest predictor of hair growth. They used to say elbow grease made them hairy, and this is true to a certain extent, but providing the appropriate conditions for hair to grow depending on the season of the year and the climate you live in will maximize the genetic capability of your animal’s hair. Cattle naturally grow hair as the days are getting shorter (September-December) and shuck/shed their hair as the daylight hours are getting longer (February-May). Controlling the hours of sunlight, whether direct or indirect, an animal is exposed to will help an animal maximize hair growth.

We believe there is such thing as working ‘too’ hard at hair. Some animals do not tolerate water (especially hard water) on their skin well, causing their skin to be dry or irritated which can inhibit hair growth. Likewise, soap pulls natural oils out of the animals skin/hair, which can dry their skin out. We recommend washing with soap once a week at most, and choosing a soap that is as gentle as possible. If you have a light colored animal that has areas that may get stained or an animal that gets dirty easily, consider spot washing only those areas that need washed more frequently.

Above all, perfecting your daily routine for preserving an environment that encourages skin/hair health will yield the best, most consistent results. Each animal has a maximum genetic capability, can you reach it?

Below is our recommendation for basic hair care 7 days a week, 52 weeks out of the year regardless of weather conditions. Below that we add different considerations for climate conditions.

Get them DRY AM and PM. We cannot stress DRY enough. Many times they look or ‘feel’ dry at the top of their hair, but deep down to the hair follicles/skin they are still damp. Dampness is a perfect place for fungus to grow, which causes itchiness, irritation, and inhibits hair growth. This is especially important on areas that touch the ground as they lay down, as dampness will also pick up dirt and debris, that will often lead to fungus or irritation.

Get them moderately clean (loose bedding/dirt/hay blown out, lightly comb off dried feces, ect.) AM and PM. It’s easier to keep them clean than get them clean. Particles on their skin cause irritation and disturb hair follicles.

AM/PM. Blow in sheen/antifungal mixture to nourish skin/hair follicles and attempt to prevent fungal growth followed by working hair (blow side to side into dry, freshly sheened/oiled hair while combing upward to help hair to stand up/out as well as stimulating follicles to encourage growth. Keep the skin healthy, get the hair to stand up, and head off potential problems before they start.

Growing hair is counterintuitive to keeping an animal comfortable in times of heat stress. If you are going to keep extra hair on them while the weather is warm, you must be willing to manage them sun up to sun down every day to protect their health.

Keeping the animal cool becomes one of, if not the most important task. Air flow is the easiest/best method to consistently help cool the animal. For locations with high humidity and hot nights, consider adding fans to the night time pens so cattle have air flow overnight if needed.

Rinsing with cold water to cool the animal can be beneficial (with extra focus on their chest, brisket, and fore portion of their underline). Cool rooms, misters or evaporative cooling units (Portacools) can be of value as well. Check out our blog on Managing Heat Stress in Livestock for more tips.

At the same time, getting the animal damp/wet without completely drying them can cause as many problems as it attempts to fix. In humid climates where the animal is unlikely to air dry quickly, the layer of water that sits on their skin when they are damp or wet insulates the animal. Actively adding cool water is good, but letting that water heat up to body temperature is bad. This leads to suffocating their hair follicles, as well as creating a thermal insulation effect for a period of time that restresses the animal - especially in animals that have a thicker hair coat.

Sheen and antifungal mixture twice a day is great for skin health, but we recommend not adding additional, heavier oil during WARM NIGHTS especially, because this creates a light layer of dampness that insulates the animal’s body and can extrapolate the effects of heat stress through the night.

To maximize hair growth during these types of days, you should consider rinsing/drying/working hair twice a day. After you rinse, take a rice root brush or wash scrubby to get the hairs to separate from each other at the base/follicle - this will allow this skin to get completely dry and stimulate the follicle to continue growing its individual hair long. This is extremely labor intensive, but often yields the best results.

Think products like Sheen, Fighting Five, ProHair 100.

In this situation, we can take the day time care of keeping the animal cool, with the night time care of maximizing hair quality and volume.

Air flow is still important, especially in the hottest portion of the day. We recommend managing these kinds of days on an animal by animal basis. If the animal does not tolerate the heat well,, they made need daily rinsing to cool off. Animals that take the heat well, consider rinsing every 2-4 days to reclean the animal and help them feel fresh.

Cool nights are where we start adding heavier oil into their coat to encourage skin/hair health and maximize hair growth. Think products like Revive Light, Flare, Olive Oil Sheen.

The best scenario for natural hair growth is when both the days and nights are cool/cold. Even on cool days, some air flow is recommended to keep cattle from sweating. Just because it isn’t warm to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t feel warm to them. On extremely cold days, air flow may not be required.

In this scenario keeping the animal fairly (but not perfectly) clean is the most important consideration. Cattle do not need to be washed every day to grow hair - think of cows in the pasture. Pick and choose when to put water on cattle. If you do not have the facility with extra means to get cattle dry in an efficient time frame, do not rinse/wash when temperatures are extremely cold as to help prevent compromising your animal’s health. Spot washing can be a valuable technique to clean a portion of the animal that is extra dirty without causing larger issues.

Here we can use the heaviest oil based hair products to nourish the skin and keep hide/hair healthy. Think products like Revive, Rag Oil, Final Bloom.