Instant Insights: Heat Stress in Dairy Cattle

Dr Jennie Pryce is Principal Research Scientist at Agriculture Victoria Research part of the State Government of Victoria, Australia where she lead the Animal’s Programme of DairyBio. Dr Pryce is also Professor at La Trobe University, Australia.Yvette de Haas is employed as Programme Manager at Wageningen Livestock Research, the Netherlands. Her expertise is in precision phenotyping for the purpose of animal breeding.

• Chapter 1 - Advances in dairy cattle breeding to improve heat tolerance: Thuy T. T. Nguyen, Agriculture Victoria, Australia; 1 Introduction 2 Utilisation of tropically adapted breeds for cross-breeding 3 Selection for heat-tolerant dairy cattle 4 Future perspectives on breeding for heat tolerance 5 Conclusion 6 Acknowledgements 7 Where to look for further information 8 ReferencesChapter taken from: van der Werf, J. and Pryce, J. (eds.), Advances in breeding of dairy cattle, Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2020, (ISBN 978 1 78676 332 7)Chapter 2 - Genetic selection for dairy cow welfare and resilience to climate change: Jennie E. Pryce, Agriculture Victoria and La Trobe University, Australia; and Yvette de Haas, Wageningen UR, The Netherlands; 1 Introduction 2 Selection indices 3 Selection for milk production, energy balance and fertility 4 New breeding objectives: health traits 5 New breeding objectives: dairy cows and climate change 6 Genomic selection, inbreeding and gene editing 7 Summary 8 Where to look for further information 9 Acknowledgements 10 ReferencesChapter taken from: Webster, J. (ed.), Achieving sustainable production of milk – Volume 3: Dairy herd management and welfare, Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2017, (ISBN 978 1 78676 052 4)Chapter 3 - Improving smallholder dairy farming in tropical Asia: John Moran, Profitable Dairy Systems, Australia; 1 Introduction2 Dairy farming in Asia3 Supporting smallholder dairy farmers4 Key constraints facing smallholder dairy farmers in tropical Asia5 Benchmarking performance6 Case study: cow colonies7 Summary and future trends8 Where to look for further information9 References and further readingChapter taken from: van Belzen, N. (ed.), Achieving sustainable production of milk – Volume 2: Safety, quality and sustainability, Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2017, (ISBN 978 1 78676 048 7)Chapter 4 - Improving smallholder dairy farming in Africa: J. M. K. Ojango, R. Mrode, A. M. Okeyo, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya; J. E. O. Rege, Emerge-Africa, Kenya; M. G. G. Chagunda, Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC), UK; and D. R. Kugonza, Makerere University, Uganda; 1 Introduction 2 Sub-Saharan Africa 3 Management practices in smallholder dairy systems 4 Improving dairy production via breeding under smallholder systems 5 Improving productivity in smallholder dairy systems 6 Key organizations supporting smallholders 7 Future trends 8 Where to look for further information 9 Acknowledgements 10 ReferencesChapter taken from: van Belzen, N. (ed.), Achieving sustainable production of milk – Volume 2: Safety, quality and sustainability, Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2017, (ISBN 978 1 78676 048 7)