ACTA VETERINARIA ET ZOOTECHNICA SINICA ›› 2016, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (4): 745-751.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2016.04.014

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Study on the Effect of Dairy Cows’ Rectal Temperature on Milk Yield in Summer in Beijing Area

XU Wei1,ZHAO Yu-chao1,CAO Lu1,ZHOU Jie1,GUO Gang2,DONG Gang-hui2,WANG Xin-yu2,LI Xi-zhi2,QIAO Lü2,WANG Ya-chun1*   

  1. (1.China Agricultural University,Beijing 100193,China;2.Beijing Sunlon Livestock Development Company Limited,Beijing 100029,China)
  • Received:2015-04-07 Online:2016-04-23 Published:2016-04-23

Abstract:

This study was designed to measure cows’ rectal temperature (RT),and to explore the pattern of dairy cows’ RT and effect of RT on milk yield under the heat stress during summer in Beijing area.Dairy cows’ morning & afternoon RT,body condition score (BCS) and ambient temperature in the barn were measured from 3 scaled dairy farms in Beijing area from July to August,2014,and DHI data of researched dairy farms was collected.The effects of farm,parity,stage of lactation and BCS on RT and test-day milk yield were analyzed using a fixed model.The result showed that:1) The simple statistics of 803 cows’ morning,afternoon RT and their difference were (38.69±0.45)℃,(38.98±0.50)℃ and (0.29±0.53)℃,respectively;2) RT among different farms was significantly different,the RT level at the first stage of lactation (day 1 to 50) was significantly higher than that at other stages (P<0.05),BCS had significant effect on afternoon RT(P<0.05);3) Both afternoon RT and squared BCS had significant effect on test-day milk yield (P<0.05),the average daily milk yield decreased 1.26 kg with per unit increase of afternoon RT.These results indicated that afternoon RT was relatively higher and might cause loss of test-day milk yield under heat stress during summer in Beijing area.Therefore,herd managers should strengthen cooling measures in summer in Beijing,monitor cows’ BCS,and pay more attention to early lactating dairy cows.RT can be used as an indicator in the study related to heat stress in dairy cows,and RT could provide indirect information for breeding plan for selecting heat tolerance ability in dairy cow.

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