Interrelationships among ambient temperature, day length, and milk yield in dairy cows under a Mediterranean climate

We examined the effect of calving month (CM) on the production of milk and milk protein by Israeli Holstein dairy cows located in the main climatic zone of Israel during their third and fourth lactations, and found it to be significant. Cows that calved in December produced the highest milk and milk protein yields, and those that calved in June produced the lowest, 92.8% of the maximum. The combined effect of the environmental average temperature and day length accounted for 0.96 of the variability in average milk production during lactation and 0.93 of that in average protein production during lactation. Average milk production was reduced by 0.38 kg/degree C and average protein production was reduced by 0.01 kg/degree C. Elongation of daylight increased average milk production by 1.2 kg/h and average protein production by 0.02 kg/h of daylight. Analysis of the temperature pattern effect on milk and protein yield during lactation indicated that cows at the second month (the pike of their milk yield) are more vulnerable to the negative temperature effect than cows on the ninth month of lactation.