7 tips for heat-stressed cows

Heat stress can cause significant costs, health related as well as financial.

Therefore, it is important to look at ways to keep the temperature down in the stable over the summer.

When the cow becomes heat-stressed, it lowers its feed intake, as feed conversion develops heat and requires energy. The cow will moreover get up and search for either a water tub or a place where there is air to cool it down.

Further, the cow redirects some of the blood flow from the tissue around the stomach and internal organs to the skin in order to dispose of the heat. The reduction of the blood flow means that there is less oxygen and energy available to the cells around the intestinal tract. This causes the barrier between blood vessels and the intestinal tract to be weakened, which can lead to the condition called "leaky gut".

Initiatives in the summer heat

1. Provide clean drinking vessels. A cow drinks up to double the amount of water if it is heat-stressed.
2. Maintain good feed quality. Be sure to have top quality feed, add acid (e.g. FreshFoss), if the temperature in the feed rises and increase the energy concentration if necessary, so that the cow gets the same amount of energy on a smaller feed quantity.
3. Keep an eye on the ventilation and make sure to get as much air through the stable as possible. It is especially important to maintain good ventilation around dry cows / calvers that have started the process of softening ligaments and connective tissue in connection with impending calving. They cannot endure to rise and lie down many times a day, as there is a risk of pressure lesions between the pedal bone and the sole. It is also important to direct air down to the lying cows so that they are cooled and thus can avoid getting up.
4. Sprinkler systems are applicable in places where the cows are standing up (fodder board / collecting area), but be sure that the water can run off, as the area may otherwise become slippery.
5. If possible, try to gather the cows in small groups for milking.
6. Sodium bicarbonate / live yeast are two sides of the same coin. By adding sodium bicarbonate, you provide the cow with an extra buffer, which means that the cow can counteract vomacidosis and in this way get an improved feed utilization. By adding live yeast, the bacteria in the rumen are stimulated, thus entailing that the cow itself increases its feed utilization.
7. Add organic zinc from your mineral supplier. There are two reasons why organic zinc combats heat stress. The first reason is that organic zinc strengthens the ties between the cells in the tissue around the gastrointestinal tract, thus prevents leaky gut, the other is that organic zinc raises the proportion of white blood cells so that the immune system can respond more quickly.