The cooler weather has continued in the past week and we have had some much needed rain. However the weather has stayed quite warm and the humidity has risen so heat stress risks have not gone away. The patterns differ across the country but most of our monitor farms have shown mild heat stress for most of the week with predicted milk yield loses around 0.5 l/cow/day. This week there was a clear north-south gradient. Farms in the south – for example Berks, Hants, Sussex showed average THI’s for the week of over 65. The more Northerly farms – N Ireland, Scotland showed very little heat stress.
The situation in Southern Europe appears to be much worse. Wild fires in Greece are causing tourists to evacuate and Italy looks set to have some of its hottest ever weather – running up to 48’C. The news is full of the impact on holiday makers and residents but very little is reported about the cattle.
