Dairy Cow
Heat Stress

In 2024-25 we have been monitoring the risk of heat stress on dairy farms in Gloucestershire and Shropshire as part of the RSP Advanced Wireless Networks project. This work-package demonstrates the use of the mobile phone network  (2G/3G/4G-low  band width services) to collect data from rural locations with a minimal infrastructure footprint at the end-point. Unlike other systems no ‘base station’ is required and the units are solar powered such that no mains (240 v) power supply is required. The low data bandwidth required and the minimal infrastructure footprint makes this system useful for outlying resources with a slow rate of data capture (eg water reservoir monitoring, river flow monitoring).  Devices have been installed in three dairy farm locations and they monitor conditions inside and outside with some on- board MPU data processing that facilitates the graphical presentation of the results on this publicly available website.

Click on the icons in the map to the left of select farms from the table below the map.

The detailed dashboards start with coloured dials showing the current short term (3h average) and long term (24h average) heat stress index. If the short term index is high then there will be changes in cow behaviour, such as shade seeking, reduced appetite, increased standing, panting etc. If the longer term, 24h Index is high then the animals are not able to ‘recover’ overnight and the stress will accumulate with bigger impacts on milk yields and fertility. The temperature and humidity (over 5 days) is shown next and then the long term trends in heat stress index.