Day-plus-night cooling strategies offer benefits for dairy cows outdoors

Dairy producers use a variety of effective cooling strategies to prevent heat stress including shade, fans, sprinklers, or a combination of all of these measures—and there is an increasing trend of having these strategies running 24 hours per day, versus only during the hottest parts of the day.

In a recent study appearing in the Journal of Dairy Science, researchers from The University of Queensland demonstrated the effectiveness of extending cooling strategies for dairy cows throughout the day and night, including how these strategies could be applied to outdoor herds with a more limited physical infrastructure. Dr. John B. Gaughan of The University of Queensland, joins us with those findings.