Coping with summer weather: management strategies to control heat stress

摘要

Heat stress occurs when a dairy cow’sheat load is greater than her capacity to loseheat. The effects of heat stress include:increased respiration rate, increased waterintake, increased sweating, decreased drymatter intake, slower rate of feed passage,decreased blood flow to internal organs,decreased milk production, and poor reproductiveperformance. The lower milk production,and reproductive performance causeeconomic losses to commercial dairy producers.This review will discuss methods thatcan be used on commercial dairy farms toreduce the effects of heat stress on dairycattle.