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Thermal, Productive, and Reproductive Responses of High Yielding Cows Exposed to Short-Term Cooling in Summer

Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Hebrew University, Rehovot 76100
Institute of Animal Science Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel

² To whom reprints requests should be addressed.

ABSTRACT

Effect of cooling on body temperature, milk production, estrous behavior, and reproductive performance was examined in 66 estrous-synchronized, Israeli-Holstein dairy cows. Cooling was by an automated system, which actuated sprinkling (30 s) followed by forced ventilation (4.5 min) for 30-min periods. Cows were cooled 9 times/d between 0500 and 2100 h over 10 d, starting 1 d before expected estrus until d 8 post estrus. Cooling reduced typical diurnal rise of body temperature in summer heat-stressed cows by .5 to .9°C, and body temperature was maintained close to normothermic temperature (38.6 °C). Milk production of cooled cows was 2.6 kg/d (+8%) above control at end of the cooling period. More cooled cows than noncooled exhibited standing estrous behavior; in noncooled cows, silent ovulations or anestrus were more frequent. Conception rate of cooled cows did not differ from control, suggesting need for a longer than a 10-d cooling period for improvement of fertility. The cooling system has potential to alleviate heat stress in dairy cows and to improve their thermal balance, productive, and reproductive performances.

¹ Department of Hormone Research, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot 76100, Israel.

³ Institute of Animal Science, Agricultural Research Organization, Bet Dagan 50250, Israel.

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