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stress, but it also increases the likelihood of disease developing when adequate air flow is not allowed. It is generally good practice to allow for sufficient ventilation for cattle in long term housing. The symptoms of heat stress include extreme panting, head flicking and bashing, excessive tail swishing, licking of coats and rubbing against surfaces. Obviously these symptoms may also be signs of other annoyances to dairy cattle such as flies and each cow will demonstrate her discomfort in her own way. So how does winter clipping fit into this? There are two aims of winter clipping dairy cattle, the first is cleanliness and the second is the reduction of heat stress. Firstly a look into the latter, by removing hair from key areas such as the shoulder, top-line, body and underneath the belly, this can have a significant improvement into the reduction of heat stress. As previously mentioned dairy cattle when suffering from heat stress will often lick their coats creating matted, curly hair. This matted hair will also occur when cows have been sweating excessively. This is a clear indication of a dairy cow that is attempting to cool herself down and by doing this she is covering herself in a film of sweat, saliva and grime which exaggerates the situation and fails to allow the skin to breathe and, therefore, increases her heat stress symptoms and body temperature.
Dairy cattle are acclimatised to a cool, dry environment. By clipping off excess hair we are giving them the right conditions to thrive in and work to their full potential
’ ABOVE Winter clipping can be a benefit to the cleanliness of cattle.
ABOVE LEFT Ideally winter housing should be light and well ventilated, however, if this isn’t possible winter clipping can help cow comfort.
An increased body temperature may be an indication of another issue such as pneumonia. By removing the hair the need for her to do this is eliminated and, therefore, normal behaviour and health can resume.
Cattle, in particular high yielding dairy cattle, are acclimatised to cool, dry conditions and thrive in these environments. The dairy cow is an athlete, so when she is working she wants to be working in a cooler environment. By clipping her hair, it is the equivalent of us removing a thick, woolly jumper. By clipping off excess hair we are giving her the conditions to work to her full potential. Heat stress is known to have a negative impact on fertility and conception rates. Increased rectal temperature results in instant lack of fertility, completely reversing the efforts made to keep semen at correct temperatures when inseminated in to a cow suffering from heat stress and high rectal temperature.
When heat stress causes problems with fertility this could add up to be a huge cost of misused semen and deemed as wasting time, therefore, not getting the optimal performance out of the average dairy cow.
The Results
=DMI after winter clipping can increase by 5% =Milk yield after winter clipping has been known to increase as much as 15%
=The parlour routines can be almost cut in half in some systems =Some farms noticed a significant drop in mastitis cases post clipping
THE JOURNAL DECEMBER 2014 103
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