{"id":2813,"date":"2022-07-05T09:43:49","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T09:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/climate-data-portal\/?p=2813"},"modified":"2023-10-13T20:13:43","modified_gmt":"2023-10-13T20:13:43","slug":"climate-change-impacts-shifting-landscape-of-the-dairy-industry-in-hawaii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/climate-data-portal\/climate-change-impacts-shifting-landscape-of-the-dairy-industry-in-hawaii\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change impacts shifting landscape of the dairy industry in Hawai\u2018i"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo credit: Dr. C.N. Lee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contributed by Mandeep Adhikari:  mandeep@hawaii.edu<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future projections indicated that air temperature would increase 1.3 to 1.8 \u00b0C by mid-century and 1.6 to 3.2 \u00b0C by the end-century (Zhang et al., 2016; Elison Timm, 2017) at the Dairy Farms (\u201cOK Dairy\u201d and \u201cUP Dairy\u201d) in Hawaii. The agriculture and livestock industries, particularly the dairy subsector in Hawai`i, is vulnerable to climate changes as higher temperatures and less rainfall will have adverse effects on cattle. This article highlights how additional heat stress and forage scarcity due to elevated temperature and reduced rainfall challenge animals\u2019 production and health, forage growth, and ranch management. This work has been published in the journal of Translational Animal Science ( https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/tas\/txac064 <\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To assess the risk of heat stress on cattle production, monthly Temperature Humidity Index (THIs) were calculated for both locations using the average monthly temperature and humidity data between 1920 and 2019. Results showed that the THI ranged from 64.6 to 70.1 at the \u201cOK Dairy\u201d site, while it ranged from 67.8 to 73.5 at the \u201cUP Dairy\u201d site. The four summer months (June to September) at the \u201cOK Dairy\u201d site were not conducive for high-producing dairy cattle (THI > 68). However, the THIs at the \u201cOK Dairy\u201d site never reached 72 (the critical threshold for low-producing cattle) and mostly remained within the range of 67 to 70, indicating favorable conditions for low-producing dairy cattle throughout the year. The high-producing dairy cows in the \u201cUP Dairy\u201d site were exposed to mild (THI > 68) to moderate (THI > 72) heat stress continuously (14 to 24 h) for several months (April to November). During these periods, THI hardly drops below 68, and therefore the dairy cows in the \u201cUP Dairy\u201d site experience more heat stress in absence of nighttime recovery than in the \u201cOK Dairy\u201d site. Therefore, High milk producing dairy cattle are vulnerable to heat stress at both locations particularly during hottest four months of the calendar year (Jun -Sep).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 5 -Temperature\u2013humidity index and wind speed across 24 h during the summer season (June to September) using the average data of recent 20 years (2000 to 2020). The dotted horizontal line with the green color above indicates the optimal heat stress threshold for high-lactating dairy cattle. The line with the red color indicates the warning threshold for suffering from heat stress for low-lactating cattle. At the red line, high-lactating cattle suffer even more than low-lactating cattle. The dotted horizontal line with black color indicates the effective wind speed that maintains homeostasis in cattle.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rainfall at the \u201cOK Dairy\u201d site is expected to increase over time, while the \u201cUP Dairy\u201d site can be even dryer by the mid-century and the end-century. Empirical results for future forage production indicated that the monthly forage production in the \u201cOK Dairy\u201d site is projected to increase by 6% to 8% by mid-century and 13% to 19% by the end-century. Whereas, the forage production in the \u201cUP Dairy\u201d site is projected to decrease 5% to 8% by mid-century and 10% to 11% by the end-century. These projections revealed that the \u201cUP Dairy\u201d site suffers more from forage scarcity, making ranching activities even more difficult in the future unless irrigation is possible. In contrast, \u201cOK Dairy\u201d sites can be even more productive with abundant grass growth in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Figure 6 – Projected percentage change in forage production at the \u201cOK Dairy\u201d and the \u201cUP Dairy\u201d site by the mid-century and end-century.
<\/strong>
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo credit: Dr. C.N. Lee Contributed by Mandeep Adhikari:  mandeep@hawaii.edu Future projections indicated that air temperature would increase 1.3 to 1.8 \u00b0C by mid-century and 1.6 to 3.2 \u00b0C by the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[27,23],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/climate-data-portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/unnamed.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/climate-data-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/climate-data-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/climate-data-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/climate-data-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/climate-data-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2813"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/climate-data-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4977,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/climate-data-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions\/4977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/climate-data-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/climate-data-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/climate-data-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/climate-data-portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}