Thursday, 04 February 2016 07:55

Help cows chill out

Written by 
A cool cow in summer is a happy cow, says DairyNZ animal welfare team manager Chris Leach. A cool cow in summer is a happy cow, says DairyNZ animal welfare team manager Chris Leach.

A cool cow in summer is a happy cow, says DairyNZ animal welfare team manager Chris Leach.

He says with the El Nino weather pattern bringing heatwave conditions to many parts of the country, it's important to make sure cows avoid heat stress.

AgResearch studies indicate that NZ cows can suffer heat stress when temperatures go above 23°C and humidity is high, especially when there is little or no wind.

"When cows get too hot appetite and feed intake decrease and if they can't cool down by using shade or other means, milk production is likely to decrease," says Leach.

Normal respiration rates vary from 15-25 breaths per minute; a rate of more than 30 breaths per minute indicates that cows are heat stressed. Really hot cows will start to pant and breathe through an open mouth with the tongue hanging out.

"Any activity such as walking to and from the dairy, to the water trough, or grazing, increases the risk of heat stress," he says.

"Digesting food and producing milk also generates heat in dairy cows, and on hot days this can overload their system. High producing animals tend to eat more, and so are more susceptible to heat stress."

If night time temperatures are also very warm it can become even more difficult for cows to cool down without extra help through good summer management. Moving to once-a-day milking can also help and although not usually the prime reason for changing milking strategy, it may well be a contributing factor worth considering.

When hot conditions are forecast, there are some good short-term ways to reduce the risk of heat stress for cows and minimise milk production losses:

Graze cows on pasture close to the dairy so they don't have to walk as far for milking, and let them move at their own pace

Milk cows later in the afternoon/early evening when the temperature has dropped

Use paddocks with shade or provide cows with access to well ventilated shaded housing and provide supplementary feed at night so the extra heat generated by digestion occurs in the coolest part of the day

Make sure cows always have a good supply of clean drinking water; milking cows can drink over 100L of water per day in summer.

Cool cows while they wait to be milked by providing shade or using a sprinkler system in the dairy yard. Wetting the skin is one of the most effective ways to cool a cow, however high humidity can make sprinklers less effective on a hot concrete surface.

Studies show that preventing heat stress is cheaper than trying to manage the consequences once cows become heat stressed.

www.dairynz.co.nz 

More like this

Strong uptake of good wintering practices

DairyNZ has seen a significant increase in the number of farmers improving their wintering practices, which results in a higher standard of animal care and environmental protection.

Winter grazing warning

Every time people from overseas see photographs of cows up to their hocks in mud it's bad for New Zealand.

Better animal genetic gain system

A governance group has been formed, following extensive sector consultation, to implement the recommendations from the Industry Working Group's (IWG) final report and is said to be forming a 'road map' for improving New Zealand's animal genetic gain system.

Featured

Massey Research Field Day attracts huge interest

More than 200 people turned out on Thursday, November 21 to see what progress has been made on one of NZ's biggest and most comprehensive agriculture research programmes on regenerative agriculture.

Expo set to wow again

Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo being once again hosted in Wairoa in February.

A year of global challenges

As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make an early November dash to Bologna to the 46th EIMA exhibition.

National

Winter grazing warning

Every time people from overseas see photographs of cows up to their hocks in mud it's bad for New Zealand.

ANZ defends farm lending rates

The country's largest lender to the agriculture sector says it's not favouring home loans over farm and business lending.

Machinery & Products

Expo set to wow again

Stellar speakers, top-notch trade sites, innovation, technology and connections are all on offer at the 2025 East Coast Farming Expo…

A year of global challenges

As a guest of the Italian Trade Association, Rural News Group Machinery Editor Mark Daniel took the opportunity to make…

» Latest Print Issues Online

The Hound

Review SOEs!

OPINION: NIWA has long weathered complaints about alleged stifling of competition in forecasting, and more recently, claims of lack of…

Bank reset

OPINION: Adding to calls to get banks to 'back off', NZ Agri Brokers director Andrew Laming has revealed that the…

» Connect with Rural News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter