Heat stress in cattle causes significant welfare harms and production losses, and as global temperatures rise, the frequency and severity of heat events affecting livestock is increasing across all major cattle-producing regions.
Heat stress represents one of the most direct and measurable intersections between climate change and animal welfare. The welfare impacts — elevated core body temperature, panting, reduced movement, reproductive failure, and in severe cases hyperthermia and death — affect hundreds of millions of cattle globally. Dairy systems are particularly vulnerable because high-yielding cows generate more metabolic heat. Welfare-protective interventions including shade, sprinklers, fans, and adjusted feeding times are known to work, but their adoption is uneven and often economically driven rather than welfare-motivated. As climate change intensifies heat events, the scale of suffering among livestock animals without adequate mitigation will grow substantially.