Cows get hot, too: A new way to cool dairy cattle in California’s increasing heat
California dairy farmers spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year trying to keep their cattle cool, as increasingly high summer temperatures, driven by climate change, heat up the country’s biggest dairy state. Cows are especially sensitive to heat and produce less milk when they are overheated, so farmers in California try to keep them cool using shade, fans and sprinkler systems. But these cooling systems use huge amounts of water and electricity, adding costs and wasting resources in an already resource-stretched state.