Bulletin of the IDF N°534/2025: Managing Heat Stress in Dairy Cattle

Publication description

Heat stress in dairy animals contributes to significant economic losses worldwide and has been escalating recently due to global warming and increased yield. These losses used to occur primarily in hot climates but are now a reality in almost all dairy-producing areas across the globe. As a result, the International Dairy Federation (IDF) established an action team in late 2020, tasked with gathering existing global knowledge on ways to cope with heat stress, addressing knowledge gaps, and collecting findings. The bulletin, which is the outcome of the action team’s work, includes models that calculate the losses caused by heat stress, leading to an estimate of global losses exceeding 10 billion USD annually. It also includes practical recommendations for farmers on how to manage heat stress and an economic model that describes the financial benefits arising from these actions.

Keywords
Heat stress; Heat mitigation; Heat tolerance; Dairy; Cooling; Shade.

Cite this content: 

International Dairy Federation. (2025). Managing Heat Stress in Dairy Cattle. (Bulletin of the IDF N° 534/2025). https://doi.org/10.56169/NFGC1866