Cows are susceptible to a combination of heat and humidity – measured by the Temperature Humidity Index (THI).  Humidity accumulates in cow sheds through respiration from the livestock and evaporation from water troughs and slurry, increasing the discomfort felt by cows on a hot day. The higher the humidity, the lower the ambient temperature at which a cow experiences heat stress. Galebreaker recommends placing temperature and humidity monitors within your cattle sheds and using a site, such as THI-Live.com to calculate THI. Once the THI level is known, the impact of your herd can be understood. The THI website also allows you to compare how your shed compares with other sheds across the UK and Europe, and understand how different building structures can influence THI rates. Our blog explains more about the impact of THI on dairy cows. Sign up to our weekly snapshot of THI levels across the UK this summer!

We use our experience to advise Farmers on how to improve their farm buildings; we do this through ventilation assessments and THI monitoring. Smoke tests are excellent tools to understand how air flows through a building. In this popular video, Chloe Rodriguez explains how she approaches ventilation testing.

Farmers who are concerned about heat stress in their livestock could also benefit from our THI monitoring service. Simple humidity and temperature sensors are available from Galebreaker at a low cost, which can transmit data to THI-Live.com. This data can then be used to produce a monthly heat map report. The heat map report can provide a comparison of THI, which is overlaid with milk production analysis. Galebreaker’s Heat Stress advisory service can also overlay fertility data and lameness records, again to help highlight the impact of THI. If you want to understand more about Heat Stress, its impact and potential solutions, this webinar we ran in conjunction with Phibro Animal Health might be useful. Contact us here.