Body heat storage in steers (Bos taurus) in fluctuating thermal environments

Abstract

SUMMARYHeat stored in the body of cattle subjected to a daily 10 CC range of environmental temperature was measured by calorimetry and thermometry. The daily range of bodycore temperature of the animals was of the order of 0·5 °C but mean skin temperature cycled with a range of approximately 6 °C. Calorimetric estimates of changes in mean body temperature showed good agreement with thermometric estimates when core and mean body temperature changes were weighted in the ratio a: (1 – α) where α was found to be 0·85. This result is consistent with the findings of another study where cattle were subjected to abrupt changes in environmental temperature, the combined best estimate of a from the two studies being 0·86 ± 0·014 (s.E.). The 10 °C range of daily environmental fluctuation resulted in a daily variation of approximately 1 °C in mean body temperature, which is equivalent to the amount of heat produced by the animals every 40 min. It is suggested that a weighting factor α = 0·86 could be employed, using thermometry only, to estimate fluctuations in body heat storage which are likely to occur in animals subjected to fluctuating environmental conditions in the field.