Impact of Dry Cow Cooling on Subsequent Performance and Health

Heat stress has profound negative effects in lactating cows, and some of that response is due to depressed dry matter intake (Collier et al., 2006). Recent evidence suggests that other physiological insults related to the heat are responsible for the remaining negative effects on yield, which indicates that alternate coping mechanisms are active in the cow that may affect other production endpoints (Wheelock et al., 2010). Therefore it is perhaps not surprising that lactating cows are adversely affected beyond simply reducing intake, as heat stress compromises reproductive performance and various health outcomes in addition to the lower yields (Collier et al., 2006).