LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Las Vegas may not be known for farm animals, but there are plenty in the northeast valley.
Chickens, goats, cows and pigs make up Las Vegas Livestock, a farm near the Apex Industrial Park. The animal’s food comes from scraps left over from resorts on the Las Vegas Strip.
“The only way we’re able to survive is using what we have here and that’s an abundance of properties that have food and food waste,” Sarah Stallard, Farm Manager for Las Vegas Livestock, said.
Las Vegas also has an abundance of heat. Workers at Las Vegas Livestock stay stocked on water, fans and cooling rags. For the animals – there’s also lots of shade and water as the barns are designed to create shade without increasing humidity.
Despite most of the other animals doing alright with the summer heat, one group that did struggle was the chickens.
On a normal spring or summer day, the chickens will produce up to 15 dozen eggs. On hot days this summer they were lucky to get a single dozen.
“Any sort of stress of the animal, the first thing that’s going to shut off is the reproductive system, which is eggs,” Stallard said.
However, chickens are resilient and start laying eggs as soon as things cool off.
“You can almost see an instantaneous increase when you see cooler weather, so during monsoons we even see them pick up,” Stallard said.
With not-as-hot weather on the horizon, it’s soon to be business as usual for the chickens of Las Vegas Livestock.