cow heat Articles
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The Long-Term Ramifications of Heat Stress on Dry Cows
At VES, there are few aspects of cow care that fester in our craw more than ignoring the impacts of heat stress on dry cows. It’s a critical period in a cow’s lactation cycle that deserves every ounce of care and attention as all others and can have long-term implications on a herd if ignored. Dry Cow (n.) – A late gestation, non-lactating cow. Often considered an afterthought ...
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Water: A Key Element for Cow Cooling from The Inside-Out
When thinking about achieving cow comfort, our focus at VES revolves around the engineering, design, and layout of fans, lighting, soaking technology, and high-pressure fogging within a barn. Those elements comprise the core of what we do, but it’s not everything. Consider this: 88 percent of milk consists of water, so ensuring plenty of fresh drinking water is available to cows at all ...
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Cow monitors help dairy boost production, health at Hardscrabble, United States
Background Jerry Volenec and his wife, Jennifer, farm 1,000 owned and rented acres and milk 350 Holstein cows in a limited liability company with his parents, Charles and Marilyn Volenec, near Montfort in Grant County, Wis. Jerry is the fifth generation of his family to farm at Hardscrabble Farms. In 2000, the Volenecs were milking 130 cows in a double- eight milking parlor. By 2010, they had ...
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Three Tips to Reduce Heat Stress in Dairy Cows
Summer is here and with it comes high temperatures, high humidity, and increased chances of heat stress. According to a 2019 Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research study, the US dairy industry experiences $1.5 billion in losses to heat stress annually. With afternoon humidities of 60-70%, and temperatures at 75-77°F, cows may already begin to experience the effects of heat stress ...
By Diamond V
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Summer Strategies to Reduce Whole-Herd Heat Stress
Summer is just around the corner and with it, heat stress. According to a 2019 Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research study, the US dairy industry experiences $1.5 billion in losses annually to heat stress. Higher temperatures can affect herds, and in turn, can decrease performance, production, and profit. However, heat stress impacts more than just the milking herd. Between calves, dry ...
By Diamond V
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How to Keep Livestock Cool in Hot Weather
During the summer months when high temperatures and humidity combine, keeping your livestock cool and comfortable is an absolute necessity. How to keep animals cool in hot weather should be a priority. Otherwise, many can succumb to heat related stress, exhaustion, stroke—and unfortunately, death. Enclosed spaces without proper ventilation will result in serious problems for you, your ...
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Reduce Summer Heat Stress in Dairy Cows and Mitigate Winter Pneumonia - Case Study
Fetzer Farms operates a double-20 parallel DeLaval milking parlor as well as its own calf and heifer facilities in Elmwood, WI. Their animal environments need to accommodate unpredictable summer humidity and heat, followed by below-zero winter temperatures and shorter daylight ...
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Planning a Successful Ventilation Retrofit
In a perfect world, every barn would be a new build where ventilation could be entered into the formula throughout the design, engineering, and building process. That fantasy, as you may have guessed, sure isn’t what we at VES work with on a day-in-day-out basis. The reality is that a large swath of the ventilation consultations and installations we do at VES are actually retrofits ...
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