Flamenbaum: "Only a very small amount of countries manage to cool cows off"

What do you think of my idea: Installing timer-electric valves and spraying 10 minutes every hour a fine mist from above the cows as they lay down on sand?

Dear Clement,

Your proposal is limited to dry climates and close buildings. Unfortunately, most of the dairy farms in warm climates are located in humid areas and use open shelters, so, only direct cooling the cows by wetting and forced ventilation will be a good solution.

Clement,

In Thailand condition I do recommend the direct cooling which combines wetting and forced ventilation.
Anyhow, there is need to know specific farm conditions to give the exact recommendation about the time of cooling needed.

Dear Mr. Flamenbaum,

You got around one of the questions of the reporter. The question was: You have researched Summer to Winter ratio. What would be a good ratio?
I am working in Hungary and in the surrounding countries. Mostly, there is a big difference in winter and summer temperature, mainly in the last years, thanks to the changes in the climate conditions. As far as I understood, the question was directed towards to the structure of the TMR. Digestability, fermentability, fat and fiber ratio, components preventing heat production in the rumen during rumination etc. Have you have any new information or suggestions out of your experimental work, to use more heat-stress-preventing components in the TMR during the hot period of the year?

Tamas, Csaki DVM.
Hungary

Dear Tamas,

feeding manipulation in summer diets, mainly reducing fiber, adding fats and increase energy and protein concentration have limited potential to improve cows performance in heat stress conditions. the most can be reached by intensive cooling the cows in this period.

Yes, it is very important to deal with such kind of issues, because most of the farmers do not know how the type of feed influence the composition of the milk and impose heat load to the animal.

Thank you Mr. Jagdish for your blessings

Yes, it is possible to mitigate heat stress effectively in all climate conditions. Some other limitations are needed to be treated (not related to heat stress), such as veterinary issues, in order to reach HF potential in such climates. Wish you success with your HF cows in India.