Dairy Symposium 2023: Alice Shirley on cattle heat stress research

NSW scientist Alice Shirley has taken out a prestigious award for her work on how cattle can best manage the summer heat. Here are her findings.

Enjoying a cold drink rather than a lukewarm beverage on a searing hot day isn’t just a human habit – bovines reckon it’s divine too, according to Alice Shirley.

The University of Sydney postgraduate student this week won the emerging scientist competition at the Dairy Research Foundation’s 2023 Symposium in NSW.

Ms Shirley is writing a thesis titled: ‘Revealing and exploiting the diversity in dairy cattle reticuloruminal temperature data for heat stress amelioration.’

In simple terms, she says her research looks at how cows can beat the heat in summer.

“(The cattle) have these fancy sensors in them that give us data, every ten minutes, 24 hours a day,” Ms Shirley said.

“We’re primarily looking at the temperature data but it also provides information on activity, rumination and a few other features.

“We already know that drinking water can have a sustained impact on the core body temperature of dairy cattle. So we really wanted to look at individual animal water intake; to see how they are using it to cope with the climate at the time.

Sydney University student Alice Shirley with Rosebud the goat.

Ms Shirley used historical data from three Victorian dairy farms over a four-year period to assess the impact of water consumption and its variabilities.

“Results-wise, (the cattle) are drinking more in summer than winter,” she said. “Their reticular rumin temperature drops less in summer than in winter and that’s because the farms we are looking at have external water sources.

“We want to explore further whether providing chilled water to cattle in summer has an optimal impact internally on the cows. So far, we’ve seen that it does.”

Originally from Cronulla in Sydney’s southern suburbs, Ms Shirley’s family links to rural NSW stimulated her interest in agricultural science.

She has undertaken seasonal work for a commercial dairy goat stud, giving her an insight into the practical impacts of her research at a farm level.

Dairy Research Foundation director Yani Garcia said the NSW event shone a spotlight on research conducted both in Australia and abroad.

“We have ten PhD and young emerging scientists giving presentations over the two days,” Professor Garcia said.

“The presentations give us an understanding of how this research can be applied to farm and the improvement of cattle.”

Dairy UP chairman Niall Blair said the symposium was a joint effort between Dairy Australia, his organisation and the University of Sydney.

“The symposium is about making sure this important dairy research doesn’t sit on a uni shelf and gather dust,” the former NSW agriculture minister said.

“We’re taking that knowledge that’s been collected over months and years and sharing it with the rest of the dairy industry so it’s used on-farm.”