The weather has been really hotting up lately, which is good news for getting your silage in, but not such good news for your cows, particularly in dairy herds.

Adult cows cope much better with low temperatures than high temperatures, mainly due to their high metabolic rate and the amount of heat produced by the rumen. The temperature comfort zone or 'thermoneutral zone' for a cow ranges from -15°C to +25°C. Outside this range, cows have to use certain mechanisms to maintain a stable core temperature of 38.8°C +/- 0.5.

Find out more here about avoiding heatstress in this month's newsletter.