Modeling heat stress under organic dairy farming conditions in warm temperate climates within the Mediterranean basin

Isabel Blanco-Penedo (), Antonio Velarde, Richard P. Kipling and Alejandro Ruete
Additional contact information
Isabel Blanco-Penedo: Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology—IRTA
Antonio Velarde: Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology—IRTA
Richard P. Kipling: Aberystwyth University
Alejandro Ruete: Greensway AB

Climatic Change, 2020, vol. 162, issue 3, No 17, 1269-1285

Abstract: Abstract We studied the effect of heat stress on milk quality in Spanish organic dairy farms using published milk productivity equations. We collected data from 23 weather stations and 14,424 milk test-days for milk yield and milk fat and protein content for the period July 2011 to June 2013. As an indicator of heat stress, we used the maximum daily temperature–humidity index (THI) from 2 days before the milk test date. We fitted the data using hierarchical regression models stratified by farm, cow parity and monthly test-day milk records. The effect of THI was deemed low on biological costs through milk yield. However, the known negative relationship between milk yield and milk quality (protein and fat content) became even steeper when the THI increased, suggesting a significant negative correlation between heat stress and milk quality. Therefore, although the milk yield of cows in the organic farming systems analyzed appeared resilient to heat stress conditions, milk quality, a major selling point for organic dairy products, was negatively affected. The model presented here could be used to predict the potential impacts of different climate change scenarios on dairy farming, and to delineate adaptation strategies within organic systems.

Keywords: Organic farming; Dairy cow; Heat stress; THI; Milk yield; Milk quality; Farm resilience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10584-020-02818-y Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

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:spr:climat:v:162:y:2020:i:3:d:10.1007_s10584-020-02818-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10584

DOI: 10.1007/s10584-020-02818-y

Access Statistics for this article

Climatic Change is currently edited by M. Oppenheimer and G. Yohe

More articles in Climatic Change from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().