The hot weather has continued through the week with the weekend being one of the hottest so far this year. All regions were in moderate heat stress through-out the week with the hottest farm suffering High heat stress throughout the week. There were some very warm nights over the weekend which limits the ability of the cow to shed heat prior to the next day.
Heat stress conditions outside are generally more extreme and variable than in housed situations – the maximal predicted milk yield loss averaged across the week was up to 3.2 l/day on the hottest farms with a maximum of 4.1 l/day on the Glos farm on Sunday.
There have been a lot of very sunny days and the Black Globe temperature has exceeded 40’C in the afternoon on some farms. These are very brutal temperatures in the full sun, the cows will be very stressed, feed intake will fall and the cows will be seeking shade. Often cows will huddle into tight mobs in these conditions making the ground wet with urine and faeces and increasing the risk of mastitis.
