Quantifying livestock responses for heat stress management: a review

Hot weather challenges livestock production but technology exists to offset the challenge if producers have made appropriate strategic decisions. Key issues include understanding the hazards of heat stress, being prepared to offer relief from the heat, recognizing when an animal is in danger, and taking appropriate action. This paper describes our efforts to develop biological response functions; assesses climatic probabilities and performs associated risk analyses; provides inputs for computer models used to make environmental management decisions; and evaluates threshold temperatures as estimates of critical temperature limits for swine, cattle and sheep.