How cow showers and fans help farmers keep cattle cool

How cow showers and fans help farmers keep cattle coolImage caption, Cows at a dairy farm near Chippenham are doused with cool water to beat the heatByDave HarveyWest of England business and environment correspondentPublished3 hours agoDairy farmers are installing "cow showers" and giant cooling fans as hotter, drier summers become more common.Extreme heat has cut milk production by up to 20% and farmers are spending thousands of pounds to keep their cattle cool and protect milk yields.Sarah Godwin has invested £15,000 in a ventilation and sprinkler system at her farm near Chippenham, Wiltshire, to help her animals cope with the "nearly continuous heatwave we are living through".Professor Nicola Cannon from the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) in Cirencester says drought-hit grassland is also forcing many farmers to use winter feed earlier than planned.More from WiltshireFarmer loses thousands after huge fire in fieldsPublished16 hours agoThe cannabis-laced gummies with fake packagingPublished17 hours agoMurder accused called 'coward' and 'liar' in courtPublished16 hours agoOn a dairy farm near Swindon, Sam Woolford presses a switch on the wall of the milking parlour and 10 industrial-scale fans whirr into life."It's like a wind tunnel in here," he says.It blows my hair back, like I'm riding a motorbike at speed. The cows like it too, it seems, and crucially, they linger in the milking parlour, clearly cool and relaxed.The system helps keep cattle comfortable during hot weather, but farmers say it cannot eliminate all of the effects of prolonged heat."Milk production is down by 20%," Prof Cannon says.She explains that "cows feel stressed just as humans feel stressed when it's really hot and, as a response to that, their milk productivity goes down. "So farmers are trying to help their cows, by putting in big fans, or sprinkler systems, to just try and cool animals down."No g...