Heat-tolerant cattle breeds

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.

Photo credits on this page

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

Greyman: Cgoodwin, CC BY 3.0, source

Canchim: Unknown author, CC BY 2.5, source

Abigar: Bertramz, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Brahman: AlejandroLinaresGarcia, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Abondance: Walpole, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Senepol: Buenoperez, Public domain, source

Waguli: Mmontanamcintosh, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Sahiwal: Harvinder Chandigarh, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Nelore: Jose Reynaldo da Fonseca, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Texas Longhorn: Clinton & Charles Robertson, CC BY 2.0, source

Zebu: A. J. T. Johnsingh, WWF-India and NCF, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Santa Gertrudis: Cgoodwin, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Brangus: JIRCAS Library, CC BY 2.0, source

Tuli: division, CSIRO, CC BY 3.0, source

Mirandaise: PANDA 81, CC0, source

Beefmaster: Beefmaster Breeders United, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Australian Charbray: Charbray Society Of Australia Ltd, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Braford: Cgoodwin, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Chianina: Monica, CC BY 2.0, source

Gir: Pavanaja, CC BY-SA 3.0, source

Afrikaner: Amada44, Public domain, source

Red Bororo: Dorothy Habila, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Red Brangus: ZacStewart00, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Tswana: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, source

Baggara: Imogen Thurbon, CC BY 4.0, source

Cachena: Rosino, CC BY-SA 2.0, source

Heat-tolerant breeds