Fort Worth Stockyards cattle drive schedule affected by heat

FW Stockyards cattle drive schedule affected by heat

The recent excessive heat forced organizers at the Fort Worth Stockyards to make an unprecedented change.

FORT WORTH, Texas - The recent excessive heat forced organizers at the Fort Worth Stockyards to make an unprecedented change.

The Fort Worth cattle herd will not go on its daily afternoon cattle drive. It's canceled for the next month.

Since June 1999, the Stockyards hold two cattle drives a day at 11:30 a.m. and another at 4 p.m.

Starting last Saturday until the end of July, if you miss the cattle drive at 11:30 a.m. you miss it completely. The 4 p.m. one was canceled because of the ongoing excessive heat.

Kristin Jaworski is the director of the Fort Worth Herd. She says typically the decision to cancel is done on a day-to-day basis. But excessive heat led to the decision to cancel the afternoon cattle drive through the end of July.

"We’re just significantly warmer at the 4 o’clock hour," she said. "So once we had a couple of cancelations, we really looked at from an operations standpoint as well as the guest experience."

Instead, visitors can see the ‘herd experience.’

North Texans finding ways to beat the heat

Splash pads in North Texas are seeing quite a bit of traffic. While families are enjoying the summer, MedStar is urging people to stay safe. Emergency responders have already treated more then 150 people for heat-related illnesses.

"It’s a behind-the-scenes program where you really get to know the drivers. They talk to you about life on the trail and of course the Texas longhorn," Jaworski said.

The experience is held in the barn behind the stock exchange building at the Stockyards.

"One of the benefits to the program when we’re altering that program is our herd experience is from 1-2. That allows the livestock, as you can see, an opportunity for shade should they choose it, fans for ventilation but also adequate rest," Jaworski said.

Jaworski wants the same for visitors.

"We know that the guests are gonna line up early and stay late on that street to watch the cattle drive. We want to be really mindful of the human element to that and we want to make sure everyone is safe," she said.

Jaworski says right now there’s no decision on if the 4 p.m. cattle drive will come back in August. The herd experience is from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. every day.