Farm Contractor & Large Scale Farmer
    Twitter LinkedIn
    • FREE Email Newsletters
    • About Us
    • Advertise
    • Subscribe
    • Contact Us
    Twitter LinkedIn
    Podcast
    Farm Contractor & Large Scale Farmer
    • News
      • Arable & Agronomy
      • Dealership News
      • Environmental Land Management Scheme/Policy
      • Event News
      • Health & Safety
      • Machinery
      • People
      • World News
    • Farm Machinery
      • Amenity & Maintenance
      • Cultivations
      • Drilling
      • Grassland Equipment
      • Harvesting
      • Muck & Slurry
      • Sprayers
      • Telehandlers
      • Tractors
      • Tractor of the Year
      • Tyres & Tracks
      • Whatever happened to?
    • Precision Farming
    • Markets & Policy
    • Profiles
      • National Arable and Grassland Awards
      • Company Profiles
      • Reader Profiles
    • Livestock
      • Beef
      • Dairy
      • Sheep
    • Magazines
      1. July 2025 issue
      2. June 2025 issue
      3. Cereals event guide 2025
      4. May 2025 issue
      5. April 2025 issue
      6. March 2025 issue
      7. 2025 Tyre Developments supplement
      8. February 2025 issue
      9. National Arable and Grassland Awards supplement
      10. January 2025 issue
      11. December 2024 issue
      12. November 2024 issue
      13. October 2024 issue
      14. September 2024 issue
      15. August 2024 Issue
      16. 2024 Drills and Seeds supplement
      17. July 2024 Issue
      18. Cereals Supplement
      19. June 2024 Issue
      20. May 2024 Issue
      21. April 2024 Issue
      22. Tyres and Tracks Supplement
      23. March 2024 Issue
      24. National Arable & Grassland Award – Meet the Finalists
      25. February 2024 Issue
      26. January 2024 Issue
      27. December 2023
      28. Agritechnica Preview Supplement
      29. November 2023
      30. October 2023
      Featured

      July 2025 issue available now

      By Matthew TiltJuly 9, 2025
      Recent

      July 2025 issue available now

      July 9, 2025

      Cereals event guide 2025 available now

      June 20, 2025

      June 2025 issue available now

      June 2, 2025
    • Events
    • Podcast
    Farm Contractor & Large Scale Farmer
    Dairy

    UK researcher wins international award

    John SwireBy John SwireJune 24, 20213 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email

    The Trouw Nutrition HealthyLife project aims at improving sustainability of dairy farming by increasing longevity and performance of dairy cows. A HealthyLife Grant of €10,000 was offered towards on-farm innovations that enhance the longevity and well-being of cows, thus improving sustainability of dairy farming. The winner of the grant is Dr. Tom Chamberlain for his project “Raising the awareness of heat stress problems with dairy farmers”.

    The project has two important aims. The first one is to increase awareness that heat stress can also affect cattle in temperate climate zones such as Europe and the coastal areas of Latin America and North America. Dr. Chamberlain explains: “A common way to quantify the risk of heat stress is the Temperature Humidity Index (THI). This has two limitations. Firstly, threshold values are often based on studies working with cows that are acclimatized to high environmental temperatures and humidity. Threshold values in cattle in moderate climates, can be as low as 62. Secondly, the THI threshold values are only applicable to housed cattle. There is a clear call for data from grazed cattle in moderate climates.

    “In grazing situations it is preferrable to work with the Dairy Heat Load Index (DHLI, Lee, 2017), which is based upon recordings of humidity and temperature in a so called “black globe” which is placed where the cattle are grazing, giving you an accurate measurement of the conditions the cow really has to face. With the help of Trouw Nutrition and Lallemand Animal Nutrition, we now have real-time data for THI and DHLI available from seven farms in the South-West of England. The results are available in real-time through our webpage”.

    Tom Chamberlain
    Tom Chamberlain

    The second aim of the project is to provide farmers with a better tool to help them with assessing heat stress in their herds. Both THI and DHLI are environment and not animal based. As such, they indicate to what extend animals are at risk, but they do not measure the effect of heat stress in animals. The project will develop a metric based on animal measurements. Dr Chamberlain continues: “Previous research workers have developed animal-based metrics but these have been too invasive or expensive for commercial use. Our intention is to develop a metric that is simple to apply on commercial dairy farms.”.

    Cesar Bratz, technical manager at Trouw Nutrition adds: “At Trouw Nutrition, we are continuously looking for ways to help dairy farmers to increase their Lifetime Daily Yield. We are proud to support the project of Dr. Chamberlain, because we are convinced it will help creating awareness that heat stress is a common problem also in countries with moderate climates. Thanks to the endeavors of Dr. Chamberlain, farmers will not only be able to avoid loss of production, but they will also be able to avoid serious animal welfare issues as a result of heat stress.”

     

     

    Tweet
    Share
    Share
    Pin
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email
    Previous ArticleFirst cordless sprayer from STIHL
    Next Article STIHL launches powerful cordless long-reach hedge trimmer
    John Swire

    Read Similar Stories

    July 2025 issue available now

    July 9, 2025

    Funded vet visits to help farmers tackle endemic diseases

    June 26, 2025

    Spread-a-Bale launches new high performance spreader

    June 23, 2025
    Most Read Stories

    High-quality bales and reliability key to baler

    July 13, 2025

    Polaris’ latest line-up of off-road vehicles put to the test

    July 12, 2025

    Polish factory key part of Joskin business

    July 11, 2025
    Farm Contractor & Large Scale Farmer

    The UK's leading agricultural machinery journal

    Twitter LinkedIn
    © 2024 MA Agriculture Ltd, a Mark Allen Group company

    Privacy Policy | Cookies Policy | Terms & Conditions

    • Farmers Weekly
    • AA Farmer
    • Poultry News
    • Pig World

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.