Interpretive Summary: Heat stress amelioration for pasture-based dairy cattle: challenges and opportunities

By: Stacey J Hendriks , John Paul Edwards , Alice K Shirley , Cameron E F Clark , Karin E Schütz , Kirsty J Verhoek , Jenny G Jago

Implications

• The mental effects of heat stress in dairy cattle are poorly understood.
• Providing effective heat abatement while allowing cows to engage in highly motivated behaviors is important to maintain good welfare.
• On-animal sensors will help understand, monitor, and predict individual cow heat load.
• Mitigation now and in future should use known strategies, while research into novel mitigations continues.
• Advancing adaptation using genetic selection requires novel phenotypes for heat tolerance to be identified.

Introduction

Societal scrutiny of animal welfare in food production systems is intensifying. In the dairy sector, the impact of heat stress on cow productivity, health, and welfare is a growing global concern, particularly with increasing temperatures and weather variability predicted to become more extreme (Nguyen et al., 2016). Excessive heat can negatively impact biological functioning including milk production, health, and reproduction (Kadzere et al., 2002), and in severe circumstances, it can cause suffering, reduce quality of life, or even lead to death (Polsky and von Keyserlingk, 2017). The cost of unmitigated heat stress to the global dairy industry could reach $30 billion (USD) by 2050 (Allen, 2024). This global challenge requires locally tailored solutions due to variations in animal characteristics, farm systems, locations, and climatic drivers.

Read more in Animal Frontiers, Advancing Animal Welfare.