SMART FARMING STRATEGIES TO COMBAT THE UNDESIRABLE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN DAIRY CATTLE PRODUCTION

SMART FARMING STRATEGIES TO COMBAT THE UNDESIRABLE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN DAIRY CATTLE PRODUCTION

Barathiraja S*

*Assistant Professor (C), Dept of VBC, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Veterinary Education and Research, Kurumbapet,Puducherry, India

ABSTRACT

Dairy cattle rearing contributes the economy especially rural people in India. Cow’s milk is consumed by almost every person; thus, the dairy cattle rearing is economical as well essential to meet the requirements. But the climate change is one of the major issues faced by the dairy industry. Climate change exerts adverse effects on dairy cattle health and welfare thus reduces the milk yield. The climatic alterations such as increase in ambient temperature, precipitation, severe drought, floods, heat waves, immunosuppression and high incidence of disease occurrence affects the health and production of dairy cattle. Climate change also leads to high incidence of zoonotic diseases occurrence. Thus, there is a need of smart farming strategies to minimize the undesirable effects of climate change on dairy cattle health and production which include adequate housing conditions, efforts to reduce the body heat, optimal nutrition with added supplements, rotational grazing, silvopasture, intensification of pasture production, availability of adequate quantity of quality water and selection of thermotolerant animals.

INTRODUCTION

Livestock plays an inevitable role in human livelihood such as food, transport, social security and employment. Among the livestock cattle contributes significant contribution the rural livelihood especially of small and marginal farmers in the developing countries such as India. Cow’s milk is consumed by almost all the people and become a definite part of diet for children, elderly people and hospitalized patients. There are many milk-based products including buttermilk, ghee, ice cream and khoa which are of high demand in food industry. Thus, the maintenance of healthy dairy cattle is essential for the people health and wealth especially in developing countries such as India.  One of the major threaten to the dairy industry is the climate change. Climate change exerts adverse effects on dairy cattle health and welfare which in turn has negative impact on milk production. The detrimental effects of climate change on animal health and production are due to increase in ambient temperature, precipitation, severe drought, coastal floods, heat waves and high incidence of disease occurrence. It has a detrimental effect on ecosystem and natural resources upon which the dairy cattle sector depends (i.e.) high cost and low availability of quality feed and water to the dairy animals. It also increases the incidence of zoonotic diseases occurrence. Thus, there is a need of smart farming strategies to minimize the undesirable effects of climate change on dairy cattle health and production (Figure.1).

Figure. 1: The impact of climate change and adaptation technologies to be followed.  Animal Frontiers: The Review Magazine of Animal Agriculture, 2019.

HEAT STRESS

Heat stress is one of the major climate change factors which severely affects dairy cattle welfare, health and production. Heat stress affects animal metabolism, results in oxidative stress and leads to immunosuppression which increases the incidence of disease occurrence in dairy cattle (Figure. 2 and Figure. 3).

Figure. 2: The effect of heat stress on animal welfare, health and production. Animal Frontiers: The Review Magazine of Animal Agriculture, 2019.

Figure. 3: Illustrates various impacts of heat stress on the immune system in dairy cattle (Bagath et al., 2019).

Increase in ambient temperature reduces animal feed intake thus in turn reduces milk yield. High temperature in summer was also found to reduce the conception rate in dairy cows (Figure. 4) (Wolfenson and Roth, 2019). Heat stress was also found to have negative effects on milk composition in terms of organic and inorganic components which will in turn affects the cheese making process and merchandise value of milk (Summer et al., 1999). Thus, this affects both the dairy producers and consumers.

Figure. 4: The effect of seasonal heat stress on hypothalamus-pituitary-ovarian axis and its involvement in reducing fertility of lactating cows (Wolfenson and Roth, 2019).

So, adopting smart farming strategies is necessary to reduce the effects of heat stress on dairy cattle health and production. The suitable strategies include optimum nutritional and managemental practices and also the genetic selection of thermotolerant dairy cattle. They are,

• Proper animal housing in terms of orientation (esp. shed long axis on east-west direction; favours heat loss from animal body to environment), floor space (5.5 x 9.0 feet for adult cow and 1.5 to 2 sq. feet for calves), roof height of 10 feet to reduce heat overload, proper roofing material such as asbestos sheet, hay or straw, colour of roof and walls (white outside and colour inside) (Belsare and Pandey 2008).
• Adequate and quality drinking water availability in the dairy farm is essential because the water consumption of animal increases as much as 50% during summer. This is necessary mainly to dissipate heat through sweating and respiration.
• Water can be used to cool the dairy cattle directly by spraying the water to the animal body at every 30 minutes and by keeping fan or air cooler inside the shed and indirectly by cooling the microenvironment by spraying the water on the roof and floor of the animal shed.
• The dairy cattle should be maintained on quality feed with optimum energy and protein level with low fibre in it (Sejian et al., 2015).
• Feed supplements such as copper and iron were found to augment the immune organ development that enhanced the immune activity of neutrophils and macrophages activity (Lukasewycz and Prohaska, 1990).
• Vitamin A supplementation was found maintain health udder in dairy cows by preservation of mucosal and epithelial layers (Scherf et al., 1994).
• Incorporation of prebiotics and probiotics with balanced nutrition is essential to reduce the ameliorate heat stress in dairy cattle (Smith et al., 1997 & Paulrud, 2005).
• Herbal immunomodulators is also found to have beneficial effects on augmenting immune response in dairy animals. Example include the topical use of herbal drug resulted in antibacterial and immune stimulation activities thus in turn controlled the subclinical mastitis condition in dairy cattle (Bhatt et al., 2014. Yancey at al., (2013) reported that the pulp of Noni (Morinda citrifolia) was found to improve growth and health in dairy cattle which was earlier reduced the stress and enhanced immunity in laboratory rats.
• Selecting thermotolerant animals as a method of genetic selection of dairy cattle could serve as a permanent solution (Carabano et al., 2019) but needs extensive studies on it. Native breeds of the particular locality may also serve the purpose. Selecting the animals based on best breeding stock with existing genomics data could be a beneficial.

DISEASE OCCURRENCE

Climate change leads to more emergence of livestock diseases, as higher temperatures and altered rainfall patterns can alter the distribution and transmission of animal pathogens and its vectors (Baylis and Githeko, 2006). In particular, climate change like global warming affects animal health by influencing host-pathogen-environment interactions. It is more likely to affect the vector borne diseases (Abdela and Jilo, 2016). Climate change also affects the host immune system as it may lead to immunosuppression. So, the dairy cattle are more prone to infectious diseases.

Climate change also increases the incidence of occurrence of zoonotic diseases. One classical zoonotic disease which is highly affected by climate change is leptospirosis. Extreme weather conditions such as floods, high temperature and cyclones may increase the frequency of infection as the major source of transmission is contaminated water. The incidence of occurrence of vector borne zoonotic diseases could be more because reproduction rate, feeding, available of breeding sites, survival of vectors is influenced by climatic conditions. Example includes influence of mosquito’s habitat and population by temperature, droughts, stagnant water in streams, predators and competitors.

The effective smart farming technologies including the animal welfare monitoring and adequate managemental practices could help to reduce the disease incidences especially during climate change conditions such as heat stress. This includes, provide adequate balanced nutritional diet with the protein, calories, vitamins and minerals. The feed may also be mixed with feed supplements and immune stimulating herbs for better animal health. During the reports of zoonotic disease occurrence in the human population, animals need to be maintained with extra attention. The farm attenders or animal care takers with the symptoms of any zoonotic diseases should not be allowed into the dairy farm. Proper vector control strategies also need to be followed to reduce the incidence of zoonotic diseases.

AVAILABILITY OF FEED, FODDER AND WATER

Climate such as hot and humid conditions and rainfall fluctuations affects the availability of quality of feed, fodder and water to the animal. The most severe issue is noticed especially in those animals maintained by grazing due to modification of ecosystem, low availability of fodder and high competition for resources. The following are the major strategies need to be followed to counter the effects of climate change on feed and water.

• In the current and projected scarcity of resources and increase in demand for dairy cattle production, the key is ‘use the resource efficiently’. The strategies include higher fodder production per hectare, more water availability (rain water harvesting and avoid water wastage wherever possible including domestic, office and industrial use), improve manure management, minimize the use of fertilizers for fodder production by avoiding indiscriminate use and use the manure efficiently.
• Rotational grazing (also known as management-intensive grazing) can be adapted for the efficient use of pasture in the land. This means only a portion of pasture is grazed at a time and remainder not used for grazing which will allow the post-grazing recovery of herbage. This method of grazing is advantageous over continuous grazing as more stable production especially at drought condition, greater herbage yield potential, higher quality fodder available, decreases weed and erosion issues and accomplishes uniform soil fertility levels (Bailey and Brown, 2011).
• Pasture management measures involve the sowing of improved varieties of pasture, typically replacing native grasses with higher yielding and more digestible forages, including perennial fodders, pastures and legumes (Bentley and Hegarty 2008).
• The intensification of pasture production though fertilization, cutting regimes and irrigation practices may also enhance productivity, soil organic carbon, pasture quality and dairy animal performance.
• Silvopasture, land management system can be adopted which integrates trees and grazing livestock operations where the trees also provide a shade and shelter especially during hot humid environmental conditions. A well-managed silvaopasture system also improve water quality and water holding capacity of the land (Hamilton, 2008).

CONCLUSIONS

The major contributing factors which affect animal welfare, health and production are high temperature, increase incidence of disease occurrence and scarcity of quality fodder and water. The possible adaptive smart farming strategies include proper animal housing management, supply quality feed and balanced ration, provision of feed supplements, needed vaccination at time, regular deworming and animal cooling practices. The permanent solution may arise by genetic selection of thermotolerant animals but need an extensive study on it on comparison with the existing cattle population. We are in need to control the activities related to deleterious climate change such as deforestation, urbanization, and encroachment of wildlife habitats. More number of buildings in urban areas found to cause heat island effect and absorbing heat, so that urban areas are warmer than surrounding areas. More buildings also found to increase the incidence of floods and/or water stagnation. In the same manner, it is significant to build the capacity to handle the risks associated with climate change Climate change and global warming are affecting all the lives in ecosystems. It also enhances the occurrence and transmission of Zoonotic diseases. We are in need to control the activities related to deleterious climate change such as deforestation, urbanization, and encroachment of wildlife habitats. More number of buildings in urban areas found to cause heat island effect and absorbing heat, so that urban areas are warmer than surrounding areas. More buildings also found to increase the incidence of floods and/or water stagnation. In the same manner, it is significant to build the capacity to handle the risks associated with climate change.  Good government policies will have added advantage in effective and profitable dairy animal rearing especially in case of small and marginal livestock farmers especially in the developing countries such as India.

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