George F.W. Haenlein
Extension Dairy Specialist
University of Delaware
OH, THAT MEXICAN
INAPPETENCE!
This year’s national Dairy
month is over, and I have just
returned from another foreign
assistance assignment abroad.
There are so many dairy topics I
could tackle, but it is so hot right
now that all I can think about is
how to shut off this heat or. at
least, diminish its effect People
can head for air-conditioned
places, but what about dairy ani
mals our cows, goats, and
sheep? What can they do to beat
this heat? And they still must give
milk two or three times a day
without changing the level of out
put.
In a few places in Saudi Arabia,
where money is no object, some
Holstein herds actually enjoy air
conditioning. And in Florida, be
cause of some excellent develop
ment work by Experiment Station
engineers, cows in many com
mercial herds are cooled by full
showers a couple of times each
hour.
1 am not the only one thinking
about the heat and its effects. Just
look how many magazine and
journal articles cover hot weather,
heat stress and what to do about it
At the risk of taking “coals to New
Castle" or “owls to Athens,” I will
add a few ideas of my own, which
include reviews of new research.
The long ears of tropical Brah
ma or Zebu cattle and of Nubian
dairy goats function successfully
as radiators in hot weather, en-
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abling those animals to get some
relief from the heat. Northern cli
mate cows, such as Holsteins,
Guernseys and Ayrshires (and
Swiss dairy goats), have short,
erect ears, so they suffer because
they have no such cooling
mechanism.
A little-known fact, however, is
that the horns of dairy goats are
highly vascularized that is, full
of blood vessels. Homs serve as a
cooling mechanism for Swiss
goats, thus reducing the tempera
ture of the brain by 2 degrees
below the average body tempera
ture. This is significant, because
the control center for eating or not
eating is in the brain. The primary
consequence of hot weather is a
reduction in feed intake, yet a
common U.S. dairy management
practice is to dehorn calves and
goat kids, thus depriving these
animals of that potential cooling
mechanism-.
When it comes to hot summer
days, dairy farmers worry that
their dairy animals lie around in
the shade and do not eat As a re
sult milk yield drops as much as
35 percent per day, total lactation
decreases, and ovulation or estrus
halts. Holsteins, Guernseys, Ayr
shires and Swiss goats suffer
when temperatures go above 80
degrees Fahrenheit. Jerseys,
Brown Swiss and Nubian goats
have a slightly higher tolerance
level. What can dairy fanners do?
Recent research in Missouri
C Journal of Dairy Science 80
(1997) 1206-1206) examined the
benefit of adding niacin at 12, 24
or 36 gram/day/cow on heat stress.
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This B vitamin dilates blood ves
sels, thereby aiding in the skin
peripheral cooling of cows on hot
days. They found that cows’ skin
was cooler and their milk produc
tion slightly higher, but the most
important problem, feed intake,
was not improved.
Other new research in Arizona
(Journal of Dairy Science 80
(1997) 1172-1178) included per
iodic water showers and air fans
for cows in addition to feeding ex
tra (3 percent) supplementary fat
per diet dry matter. The idea is to
reduce heat generation from eat
ing a normal feed ration by in
creasing its nutrient density with
fat, thus providing more energy
with less volume of feed. Results
showed how difficult it is to help
heat-stressed cows by way of
feeding—they just do not want to
eat as much as usual. The cows
know instinctively that eating
makes them more hot.
Cows suffer from what I like to
call “Mexican Inappetence” syn
drome. It sounds better than just
saying “reduced voluntary feed
intake” or “heat-stress-induced
lower feed consumption.” All it
means is that dairy animals have
no appetite for anything. And just
as our cold winter storms come
across Canada on the “Canadian
Clipper.” the hot winds originate
in the Gulf of Mexico there
fore, “Mexican Inappetence.”
Research in Arizona showed
that while the manipulation of the
ration in the right direction,
physiologically, did not help hot
cows sufficiently, but a milk prod
uction increase of more than S
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pounds/day/cow and increased
feed intake was achieved with per
iodic showers and air fans. To be
of any value, shower cooling must
take place where cows spend most
of their time: 1) where they eat sil
age or a total mixed ration (TMR),
and 2) in the holding pen. As cows
wait to be milked, they crowd to
gether and get overheated. We
have done both at the University
of Delaware dairy bam with good
success.
Other good advice comes from
the Georgia and Kansas Experi
ment Stations on how to overcome
that inappetence of dairy animals
when the hot air from the Gulf of
Mexico stagnates here:
• Don’t walk cows long dis
tances.
• Provide clean, cool water,
even out in the pasture!
• Reduce roughage to 40 per
cent of total ration dry matter.
• Increase eneigy and protein
density of the ration.
• Adding 1 pound fat can reduce
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the grain ration by 2.25 pounds.
■ Keep ration fat contents as
high as 6.0 percent
• Make ration protein levels
about 20 percent
• Keep potassium ration con
tents between 1.3-1.5 percent
• Limit grazing to early morn
ing and evening.
■ Shower and fan cows—regu
larly and frequently—where thev
congregate as soon as the
temperature reaches 80 degrees F.
• Feed TMR several times per
day for better freshness.
• Moisten TMR to 45-50 per
cent water contents for improved
intake.
• Clean feed bunks daily and re
move leftovers.
• Use rumen buffers to control
acidosis.
If you follow these tips for tak
ing the heat off your milking ani
mals, they will lose that inappe
tence, and you will reap the finan
cial benefits.