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EveryCow

Heat-tolerant breeds

Loose skin, short coats and sweat glands that keep zebu and sanga cattle working in tropical heat.

Heat-tolerant cattle keep eating, milking and working in heat and humidity that would make most European breeds stand in the shade and lose condition. The zebu of South Asia are the classic example: Gir, Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Tharparkar and Ongole, and their descendants abroad such as the Nelore and the American Brahman. Africa's sanga breeds, and a few taurine breeds of the tropics such as the Senepol and the N'Dama, are heat-tolerant too. As summers grow hotter in many dairy regions, the trait has drawn new interest from breeders everywhere.

How the body copes

A heat-tolerant animal loses heat well and makes less of it. Zebu have more and larger sweat glands than taurine cattle, and they sweat more freely. Loose skin, a large dewlap, long ears and a hump give more surface for heat to leave. Short, sleek, light-coloured coats reflect sunlight, while dark skin under the coat protects against the sun. Zebu also have a lower resting metabolism, so they produce less internal heat to begin with.

The slick coat

Some tropical taurine and composite breeds carry a gene variant that gives a very short, glossy coat, known as the slick coat. It was found in the Senepol of the Virgin Islands, the Carora of Venezuela and several Criollo breeds of Latin America. Slick-coated cattle keep their body temperature lower in the heat, and breeders have crossed the slick variant into Holstein lines for hot climates.

What heat does to cattle

Cattle under heat stress eat less, give less milk, grow more slowly and conceive less often. A Holstein cow begins to feel the effect at temperatures many Indian breeds handle easily. That is why tropical dairying has long relied on zebu or zebu crosses, and why Indian breeds became the foundation of cattle farming in Brazil, northern Australia and the American Gulf coast.

Indian breeds in the heat

Tharparkar and Rathi live in the Thar desert, where summer temperatures often pass 45 degrees Celsius. Gir and Kankrej come from the hot, dry west of Gujarat. Ongole and the draught breeds of the Deccan work through the summer before the monsoon. The heat tolerance of these breeds is one reason Indian and international researchers study them, and why their genes are sought by breeders in hot countries.

Worth knowing

  • Gir: Gujarat milking zebu, the base of much of Brazil's tropical dairy
  • Sahiwal: Dairy zebu kept in hot countries from Kenya to Australia
  • Tharparkar: Desert zebu of the Thar
  • Red Sindhi: Dairy zebu of Sindh, used in tropical crossbreeding
  • Nelore: Brazilian beef zebu from Ongole stock
  • American Brahman: Zebu breed of the American Gulf coast
  • Senepol: Slick-coated red cattle of St Croix, Virgin Islands
  • Bonsmara: South African composite selected for heat

Good to know

  • Every breed benefits from shade and clean water in hot weather; heat tolerance is not heat immunity.
  • Move and handle cattle in the cool of the morning or evening.
  • Watch for open-mouthed panting and drooling, the signs of heat stress.

Sources and further reading

About this page

Original text by the EveryCow desk, written with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Customs are described as tradition, not as advice. If we have something wrong, tell us.

Heat-tolerant on EveryCow

The breeds written up so far, best known first.

PurposeDairyBeefDraughtDual-purposeTriple-purposeSportCeremonialGrazingHeritageMiniature
LineageTaurineZebuSangaCompositeYakMithunBantengWild
馃嚭馃嚫 United StatesTexas Longhorn American beef cattle, once feral on Texas ranges, with horn spreads beyond 2.4 mTaurine 路 Beef 路 Heat-tolerant 馃嚠馃嚬 Italy and 5 moreChianina A massive white Italian breed known for beef production and historic draught work in Tuscany.Taurine 路 Beef 路 Heat-tolerant 馃嚝馃嚪 France and 2 moreAbondance A red and white dairy breed from the French Alps, kept for milk and mountain grazing.Taurine 路 Dairy 路 Heat-tolerant 馃嚜馃嚫 SpainMenorquina A red, hornless dairy breed from the Spanish island of Menorca, prized for Mah贸n cheese production.Taurine 路 Dairy 路 Disease-resistant 馃嚭馃嚫 United States and 5 moreSenepol A polled red beef breed from St Croix, built for heat and insectsTaurine 路 Beef 路 Heat-tolerant 馃嚫馃嚛 Sudan and 4 moreSanga cattle The umbrella name for native African cattle, mixing humpless taurine and zebu bloodTaurine 路 Disease-resistant 馃嚨馃嚬 Portugal and 1 moreCachena A small Iberian breed from northern Portugal and Galicia, kept for beef and formerly for draught work.Taurine 路 Beef 路 Docile 馃嚝馃嚪 FranceMirandaise A large, heat-tolerant draught breed from the Gers, now raised for vealTaurine 路 Draught 路 Heat-tolerant 馃嚘馃嚭 AustraliaAdaptaur A medium, dark-red Australian beef breed, bred in the 1950s to beat heat and ticksTaurine 路 Beef 路 Heat-tolerant 馃嚙馃嚪 BrazilPantaneiro A small Criollo breed of Brazil's Pantanal wetlands, now endangeredTaurine 路 Heat-tolerant 馃嚮馃嚜 VenezuelaTipo Carora A Venezuelan dairy breed, pale fawn or white with black skinTaurine 路 Dairy 路 Heat-tolerant 馃嚮馃嚜 VenezuelaVenezuelan CriolloCriollo Limonero A taurine landrace dairy cow from Zulia, Venezuela, yellow to red and heat-hardyTaurine 路 Dairy 路 Heat-tolerant 馃嚦馃嚠 NicaraguaLa Reina A red, slick-coated dairy breed from Nicaragua, kept for milk, meat and workTaurine 路 Triple-purpose 路 Heat-tolerant 馃嚝馃嚪 France and 3 moreJersey A small brown dairy breed from the Channel Island of Jersey, known for rich yellow milkTaurine 路 Dairy 路 Heat-tolerant

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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