Heat stress is a major and growing welfare threat for cattle globally. Understanding its physiological effects and management options is increasingly urgent as temperatures rise.
Heat stress in cattle causes genuine physiological suffering and represents one of the most significant emerging welfare challenges in animal agriculture as climate change intensifies. The condition reduces every dimension of cattle welfare simultaneously: physical comfort is compromised by thermal discomfort; health is impaired by immune suppression and metabolic disruption; natural behaviour is altered by the drive to seek shade and water at the expense of feeding; and reproductive success is reduced. Current heat stress management relies primarily on reactive interventions; a more proactive welfare approach requires designing facilities and management systems that prevent the threshold from being reached in the first place. This means mandatory shade provision, appropriate ventilation infrastructure, and management planning that accounts for projected climate change in the region.