Here you’ll find practical steps to protect your herd, tips to spot stress signs, improve water systems, create shade and shelter, and adjust farm routines for changing conditions.
Summary:
Extreme heat and adverse weather affect cow wellbeing and milk yield. Taking action now helps productivity and supports emissions goals.
Monitor your cows
Actively monitor your herd and respond quickly to signs of heat, cold, or adverse‑weather stress to protect cow wellbeing and maintain production.
- Hot weather: Cows can overheat when temperatures exceed 20°C.
- Adverse weather look for:
- Faster breathing
- Grazing less
- Drinking more
- Moving slower in warm weather
- Cold weather: Cows feed more to keep warm.
- Adverse weather look for:
- Cows huddling together
- Moving to higher ground during flooding
- Individual cows lying down alone in exposed areas with decreased mobility (possible hypothermia)
- Monitor your herd while moving around the farm.
- Consider wearable cow sensors (e.g., collars) to track respiration and receive heat stress alerts.
What you can do
- Heat stress causes discomfort in cows.
- It can reduce milk yields.
- Learn how to recognise the signs of heat stress.
Provide water
Make clean, reliable water easy to access by placing enough well‑flowing troughs and regularly checking your system can meet herd demand.
- Place enough troughs in key areas: yard, races, standoff areas, and grazing paddocks.
- Ensure troughs are available near hills or steep parts of the farm.
- Water must be clean, palatable, and drinkable.
- Troughs should match cow numbers and have adequate flow rates.
- Pipes should be 75mm in diameter with enough pressure to supply 20 liters per cow per hour.
- If cows are waiting for troughs to refill, water supply is insufficient.
What you can do
- Check your current water system.
- Review if it meets your needs now.
- Assess whether it’s adequate for future needs.
Provide shade and shelter
Give cows ample shade and reliable shelter in all weather, and keep expanding these areas through ongoing planting and farm improvements.
- Offer shade options such as trees, herd homes, or shade cloth shelters.
- Ensure shade areas provide at least 5m² per cow.
- Protect cows during adverse weather (high winds, heavy rain, snow, freezing temperatures, flood-prone areas).
- Shelter in both hot and cold conditions helps maintain herd health and productivity.
- Plant more trees and vegetation to increase shade areas.
- Build extra shade shelters or sheds as part of farm infrastructure improvements.
- If inexperienced with planting:
- Contact a planting project management provider (many manage the entire project).
- Reach out to your regional council or search online for providers in your area.
What you can do
- Explore planting options to create shade and shelter.
- Plan how you’ll establish, maintain, and improve plantings on your farm.
Make proactive changes
Plan ahead and adjust your farm routines to stay ahead of heat and adverse weather risks.
- Be proactive to improve productivity, profitability, sustainability, and animal welfare.
- Create heat stress and wet weather management plans.
- Include strategies for future climate change challenges.
- Understand how many heat stress or adverse weather days your region experiences.
- Plan for future climate change – temperatures are predicted to rise and adverse weather events will increase by 2050.
- Change feeding and milking times to cooler parts of the day (e.g., 16-hour milking).
- Minimise cows’ time on the yard and shorten walking distances to the shed.
- In high-heat regions, use sprinklers and fans (both in high-humidity areas).
- Manage pastures and feed crops to reduce soil damage during wet weather.
- Move cows to areas less prone to flooding and pugging before and during wet conditions.
What you can do
Have a look at your summer milking schedules and frequency to see how you can change them to minimise heat stress in your herd.
What's the opportunity for your farm?
Productivity, Profitability and Sustainability.
Productivity
- Reduce heat or cold stress to keep cows comfortable and productive.
- Managing stress from bad weather helps avoid production losses.
Profitability
- Preventing heat stress can save up to 6 million kgMS nationwide.
- That’s about $5,700 extra per farm each year.
Sustainability
- More milk per cow lowers emissions per litre.
- Reducing stress improves cow well-being and helps meet emissions targets.
Need help right now with managing environmental stress? Talk to us
Customer Service Team
Our Farmer Support Team is available 24/7 for urgent help and immediate guidance.
Local support
The My Co‑op app has contact details for your local Farm Source team for more complex issues.
Chat in person
Your Farm Source store is there for local face‑to‑face support with our team. They’re always happy to help.