Heat Stress on Farms
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How hot has it been in milking parlours and why is this episode focusing on heat stress?
We are going to spend quite a bit of time this morning in milking parlours where they have been incredibly hot in the course of the last week. And we're going to be talking about how we adapt, how farmers adapt to climate shifts, because the last week has presented an entirely different set of challenges to the normal ones that farmers have to deal with. Dairy farmers in particular, as they try to look after animals that were not designed for these temperatures. Vet Ryan Duffy works with Animal Health Ireland. He is a specialist in heat stress in dairy cows.
The Irish dairy cow is susceptible to heat stress for two main reasons. Reason number one is to do with their actual digestive system. So they have four stomachs. The largest one, the rumen, that's actually a microbial fermentation vat. So that is constantly producing heat. A lot of gas, but a lot of heat. So think beer brewery. Beer brewery, exactly like a beer brewery. So I would equate it to a dairy cow having a water bottle underneath her skin at all times. During cold weather, it's great. During hot weather, it's a challenge.
Imagine walking around with a hot water bottle strapped to your stomach in 27 degrees of heat.
And then add to that... Within the veterinary realm, we refer to dairy cows as essentially Olympic athletes because their metabolic performance is incredible. We have to think of the milk yield they're producing every single day, the total solids they're producing every single day, and there's metabolic heat being generated as well. So in this sort of weather, we have an Olympic athlete running at full tilt with a hot water bottle under their jersey. It's not a recipe for disaster.
And at what temperature does that begin to become an issue for them?
Yeah, so where are cows most happy? Probably in around that 10 to 15 degrees Celsius level. So the second it starts creeping up, we start encountering issues.
Who is Ryan Duffy and what role does Animal Health Ireland play in heat stress on farms?
And obviously we will see clinical signs of heat stress. We will see their response. Dry matter intake will go down. They eat less. They eat less.
Because we all kind of feel off our food when it's very hot, don't we?
It's the same thing. Exactly. And imagine if you're putting in food and that's what's driving that microbial fermentation process.
Why are Irish dairy cows particularly susceptible to heat stress due to their digestive system?
Okay, so a good way of cooling down would be taking in less food, yeah.
Exactly. Then on top of that too, we have an increase in respiratory rate, so panting. And, you know, that's very good at evaporative cooling. Cows aren't as good as other mammalian species at sweating, like ourselves. So they really depend on an increase in respiratory rate to help dissipate heat.
So they can pant or they can drink, and that's about it to cool down?
That's largely it. So they have a decrease in dry matter, they have an increase in respiratory rate, but also underneath the bonnet they have... they're diverting blood supply from the internal organs. So you have to think about absorption of nutrients in all of this. They're putting the blood supply towards the skin so the heat can dissipate out of the bloodstream into the environment.
So a dairy cow that's high producing, typical one here in Ireland, they're consuming about 70 to 120 litres of water every single day, as per routine. That figure can go up by 50% whenever you're standing in temperatures like this.
So at these temperatures, are you telling me that one of these girls... could drink 180 litres on a day like today?
Definitely, definitely. And the thing is, because the microbes that we're talking about for fermenting, the diet that they're eating, the stuff that we can't consume, so we're trying to produce it into animal protein by feeding cows with it, they can't degrade that without the microbes. The microbes need water to proliferate and to actually thrive.
And if they don't get that water...
they will slowly, slowly either enter dysfunction or they'll die. And that's the thing that's driving the whole motor of the dairy cow.
So if the microbiome of that animal begins to die, presumably there are big health consequences for the cow.
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Chapters
3 chapters
1
How hot has it been in milking parlours and why is this episode focusing on heat stress?
0:00–2:09
2
Who is Ryan Duffy and what role does Animal Health Ireland play in heat stress on farms?
2:09–2:27
3
Why are Irish dairy cows particularly susceptible to heat stress due to their digestive system?
2:27–6:51