Are my cows impacted?

In addition to the region in which you farm, there are several animal factors which influence your cows inherent susceptibility to heat stress. These animal factors affect the amount of ‘metabolic heat’ the cow produces, and / or the ease with which heat is transferred to and from the cow’s external environment. The most significant animal factors influencing cow susceptibility to heat stress are breed, age and liveweight, and level of milk production. You may wish to read this table, which describes these animal factors.

Heat stress costs you in many ways, with impacts that last well beyond the hot season. You may wish to read this information on the impacts of heat stress on feed intake, milk production and quality, cow fertility and health. You may also wish to look at this information which provides a cost/benefit analysis for a typical herd, comparing different cooling strategies.