Cows that suffer from heat stress have reduced feed intake and rumination time. It’s also possible that they won’t lay down and can be panting. This leads to rumen acidosis, less milk production, mastitis and hoof problems. Consequences of heat stress are production loss, more sick cows, higher medical costs and reproduction problems. Four tips on how to identify and prevent heat stress in dairy cows.
Four Tips on how to Identify and Prevent Heat Stress in Dairy Cows
1. Prevent Heat Stress: Cool your Cows
Cool your cows and supply them with fresh water. On warmer days the required water intake of a cow can increase by 50%. Because of this, fresh water supply for cows and calves is very important. Cool your cows in a ventilated location, a paddock with plenty of shadow, or with a sprinkler. When you use water it’s key to also use fans, this will stimulate evaporative cooling. Only using water could increase humidity levels and therefore have a negative effect on your cows.
2. Adjust your Ration and Reduce Cow Stress
Instead of feeding your cows during the hottest time of the day, feed them in the evening or twice a day. In order to avoid a drop in rumen pH, the feed should always contain a buffer to hold the acidity in the rumen.
3. Measure Temperature and Eating Behaviour
Your cow’s ear temperature and eating behaviour are good indicators of early signs of heat stress. CowManager’s Nutrition Module can help you improve your heat abatement strategy by sending alerts on when heat stress is expected.
4. Keep Measures in Place All Year Round
Even after hot days, it’s important to keep measures in place. Create optimal lying comfort and keep milking sheds clean. This will have a positive effect on lying behaviour and also prevents infections.
With the Health Module you will also be able to continuously monitor your cows health on all fronts. You can check how your cows are doing every moment of the day through simple graphs and statistics.
Do you want to know more about monitoring your cow’s health and preventing heat stress? Our CowManager Specialists are happy to introduce you to our service. Please get in touch and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
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