Heat Stress Characterization in a Dairy Cattle Intensive Production Cluster under Arid Land Conditions: An Annual, Seasonal, Daily, and Minute-To-Minute, Big Data Approach

Rafael Rodriguez-Venegas, Cesar A. Meza-Herrera, Pedro A. Robles-Trillo, Oscar Angel-Garcia, Jesus S. Rivas-Madero and Rafael Rodriguez-Martínez
Additional contact information
Rafael Rodriguez-Venegas: Unidad Laguna, Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro, Torreón 27054, Mexico
Cesar A. Meza-Herrera: Unidad Regional Universitaria de Zonas Áridas, Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Bermejillo 35230, Mexico
Pedro A. Robles-Trillo: Unidad Laguna, Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro, Torreón 27054, Mexico
Oscar Angel-Garcia: Unidad Laguna, Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro, Torreón 27054, Mexico
Jesus S. Rivas-Madero: DiGiTH & DiGiSKY Technologies, Torreón 27100, Mexico
Rafael Rodriguez-Martínez: Unidad Laguna, Universidad Autónoma Agraria Antonio Narro, Torreón 27054, Mexico

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-19

Abstract: This study characterized the environmental–climatic trends occurring in the largest dairy cattle intensive production cluster under arid land conditions in northern Mexico. The study was based on the Temperature Humidity Index (THI); it aimed to identify the number of days with THI values ≥68 as a bio-marker of heat stress (HS) and evaluate the possible HS effect upon the milk production of dairy cows. Climate data were obtained every 10 min in five farms across years (i.e., 2015–2020). THI was divided into four HS subclasses, 68–71, 72–76, 77–79, and ≥80, according to the circadian HS occurrence (i.e., 1, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24 h), and analyzed across seasons–years. Thus, a total of 1,475,319 THI across different time-scale subclasses was analyzed. The observed results supported our working hypothesis in that yearling-average periods with more than 300 d, HS was confirmed. A yearly average of 31.2 d with THI ≥ 80 with similar ( p > 0.05) trends across dairy farms and a slight annual variation ( p < 0.05) were also witnessed. Moreover, the highest days with THI levels ≥68 occurred in summer and autumn ( p < 0.05), while the in the subclasses 68–71, 72–76, and 77–79, THI occurred in any hour-scale subclass (i.e., 1, 4, 8, and 12 h). Furthermore, a trend to observe THI-HS increases either among years or within an hour-scale basis were also observed. On average, HS engendered a reduction of up to 11.8% in milk production. These research outcomes highlight the need to identify and quantify the negative impacts that HS may generate at a productive and reproductive level in order to delineate mitigation strategies that may lessen the environmental impact upon the dairy cattle industry.

Keywords: arid climate; dairy cattle; warm environment; temperature–humidity index; heat load; milk production (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/6/760/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/12/6/760/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:12:y:2022:i:6:p:760-:d:824995

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().