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Heat stress in dairy cattle
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Efficient cooling systems based on water evaporation from cow's body surface have been developed in last four decades in dairy sectors of warm climate countries. The main effect of cooling is in reducing the drop in food consumption caused by heat stress, in addition to the normal drop in food consumption in the beginning of lactation, resulted by the mobilization of body reserves and with all its metabolic meanings. Few years ago, we conducted a research in which we studied the...
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Heat stress is considered one of the most influential factors in the profitability of dairy farms, especially in the hot regions of the world. In the conferences and publications that I have published over the years, I mainly dealt with the economic benefits that may arise from the proper installation and operation of the means to dissipate the heat generated by the cows.
The purpose of this article is to raise awareness that the inability to cope with heat stress is of financial...
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This article presents the results of a "cow cooling project", in northern Mexico, characterized by long hot and dry summer months, with the extreme conditions of heat stress in dairy cows. The farms where the cooling project took place are considered as large scale dairy farms, with high-yielding cows from the Holstein breed. The dairy farmers are aware of the existence of a negative effect on the indices of summer production, reproduction and health of the cows and the economic losses...
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Introduction Genetic variability of livestock populations is fading. This is due, in part, to genetic improvement programs (FAO, 1998; Gutiérrez and Goyache, 2005). Boichard et al. (1997) mentioned that change in genetic variability across generations could be described by genealogical characterization; and the conservation and consanguinity status of populations can be monitored (Vicente et al., 2012; Pienaar et al., 2015). Genealogical analysis requires the creation and...
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Heat stress has a negative effect, not only on milk production, but also on the cow's metabolism. Periods of high heat stress will become part of the memory of her metabolism and produce negative effects long after the high heat has passed. This is why it is important to equip farms with efficient systems that allow the cow to evacuate a maximum amount of calories from her body during the hottest periods and almost when they are laying in the cubicle which is the most part of the day. The...
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Q: What are the main consequences of heat stress? A: Regarding milk production, there are different factors, not just volume, but also fat content and protein in the milk and quality of the milk;...
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Cooling means to reduce heat stress from cows have been developed over the last four decades in Israel and around the world, and are applied to a different degree of success in many farms in the world. Cooling cows in the farm is based largely on the daily routine, which includes cooling the cows in the waiting yards before and between milking sessions, as well as in the feeding line, around feeding time. In farms with robotic milking, there are no milking hours defined, and each...
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Poultry is a homothermal animal, and its body covers with feathers to increase its cold resistance. However, Taiwan is an island that lies in the tropic of cancer, and the general climate is marine tropical. During summer, this mechanism is adverse to heat dissipation and causes heat stress. Heat stress is a familiar stress effect that will affect animals’ growth performance, productivity, and health. Heat stress affects livestock production results in increased demand for net...
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Summer losses in milk production are usually related to the negative impact of summer heat stress on the lactating cow. In the last 40 years, some studies realized in different parts of the world showed that also dry cows are negatively affected, when subjected to heat stress conditions. These losses are mainly related to lower milk volume and solids production, as well as fertility traits in early stages of the subsequent lactation. Heat stressed dry cows also suffer from higher incidences...
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In a survey that we carried out recently in Israel, we found a great variation between farms, in terms of the number of hours along the day the cows are in "heat stress" condition (body temperature above normal). This variation is correlated with cow’s milk yield and breeding performance during summer months. As time in a day, cows face heat stress is longer, the drop in milk production and conception rate in the summer (as compared to winter levels) is greater. In this article,...
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Climate change is one of the most important environmental realities that human faces in this century. Not only because of the effects it has on the different human spheres, but because it represents a challenge for the development model that human has assumed since the industrialization period (Estenssoro 2010 and Lemaire et al. 2019). High temperatures and variations in the relative humidity of the environment are common in tropical summers and are considered as the most influential...
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In a lecture I gave at the 29th Israel Dairy Conference, held in Jerusalem in November 2017, I presented the principles of my work in consulting dairy farms around the world on coping with negative effect of summer heat stress, and the achievements we reached in different countries due to the correct implementation of cow cooling methods. At the beginning of my lecture, I presented the basic conditions for obtaining the best results from cooling the cows, in projects in which I operate,...
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Heat stress refers to the sum of non-specific physiological responses of the organism at high temperature to any requirements of the thermal environment. The main factors causing heat stress are ambient temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, and airflow. It is judged that the heat stress of dairy cows is mainly reflected by temperature and humidity index (THI). When THI > 72, heat stress occurs. Temperature? (?) Relative Humidity(100%) 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 25 (77) - - 72 73 74...
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The summer heat stress is one of the largest causes of economic losses to dairy farms in the world. In particularly hot regions, a drop of more than 1,500 liters par lactation from cow’s potential is reported, with a loss in potential annual net income of about $ 600 per cow. Optimizing cow cooling can reduce the annual production loss to less than 200 liters, and the financial loss to almost $ 100, improving per cow profitability by 500 $, annually. In recent years, we started...
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In the last 40 years, Israeli researchers realized comparative studies in order to define the negative effect of heat stress in dairy cows and the effect of using cooling methods to mitigate the heat and reduce the losses in the productivity and fertility of the cows during summer. Recently, an index called "summer to winter ratio" was developed in the Israeli dairy sector. This index allows to...
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Achieving high conception rate is one of the conditions for achieving efficient production of milk at farm level. For many years the Israeli dairy industry suffered, like other farms in warm countries, a significant decline in the ability to pregnant the cows during summer months, causing reduction in the efficiency of milk production and seasonality in milk supply to the industry and market. Unlike the effect of heat on cow's production which is largely depends on the cow's food...
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Dairy sectors all over the world have been using the cattle heat load index (THI) as a mean of characterizing the climatic conditions to which cows are exposed. This is true when analyzing the results of experiments and surveys, as well as the routine by which milk producers operate their farms. The heat load index is based on a formula that includes the ambient temperature and relative humidity at a given time. Until recently, the value of THI 72 had been defined as a threshold value...
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