ISSUE FOCUS FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE July 2023 39 4. Adjust nutrition and have plenty of water available. Cows tend to eat more at night during the hot summer months, so you’ll want to have feed available then. Holub reminds producers to be sure to provide adequate intake of feed and fresh, clean water. Heat-stressed cows drink up to twice as much water, meaning that a large-bodied cow can drink up to 55 gallons — nearly a full barrel — of water each day. Holub says that some producers also feed cations, such as potassium. These cations are often found in sports drinks to balance human electrolytes, and they offer similar benefits for dairy cows. 5. Optimize immunity. OmniGen® nutritional specialty product is a heat stress management solution that has been proven to support healthy immune function and can help alleviate the effects of heat stress leading to lower respiration rates and rectal temperatures in heatstressed cows. “We see the greatest change when cows are fed OmniGen before they hit a heat stress slump,” Holub says. “Cows produce a huge metabolic amount of heat, so when we add heat stress to the mix, we’re just asking for problems if we’re not supporting the cow’s immune system.” Heat stress occurs gradually and likely earlier than you’d think — typically in April for most of the United States. Fortunately, with these commonsense approaches to managing heat stress, producers can offset most of its effects to help keep their cows healthy and productive. 1Key, N. et al., 2014. Climate Change, Heat Stress, and U.S. Dairy Production, Rep. No. 175. About Glenn Holub Dr. Glenn Holub, Executive Dairy Technology Manager with Phibro Animal Health, was raised on a small dairy farm on the Texas gulf coast. He received his B.S., M. Ag, and PhD from Texas A&M University in Animal and Dairy Science. He served as a county agent for 12 years, as lecturer and faculty manager of the A&M Dairy Cattle Center for five years, feed company nutritionist and quality control with Land O’ Lakes/Purina and Gores, Inc. for five years, and professor of Animal Science at Texas A&M University for eight years before joining Phibro Animal Health over eight years ago. Each and every one of these positions over 36 years of his career has developed his thought process and ideals of the dairy industry from various points of view.
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