GOODYSMATE

Written by John Swire

With temperatures forecast to rise above 25°C, cattle producers should be prepared to mitigate the negative effects of heat stress on their beef and dairy animals.

“Cattle are fairly comfortable when the ambient temperature is between 15°C and 25°C over the summer months but if the thermometer rises significantly, production performance will start to suffer,” warns Jacob Lakin from Azelis Animal Nutrition.

“This is because both a milk production and growing beef animal will start to divert energy away from production performance towards keeping cool. You’ll notice if a cow is struggling during a summer heatwave because she will start to salivate heavily and pant...