Effect of hair coat clipping on some physiological changes of dairy bulls

Abstract

Some physiological responses of 6 Friesian crossbred (87.5%) bull yearling with 2.5 years old, averaging 235 kg. bodyweight were investigated under hot humid conditions. All animals were raised in a house (4 × 15 × 5; w × l × h meters, respectively) with concrete floor and were assigned to the Pair Comparison Design according to their weight and age into 2 groups. Animals in group 1 were maintained with their natural hair coat while their counterparts in group 2 were coat clipped fortnightly through a 70-day experimental period. The results indicated that the clipped animals had a significantly (P<0.05) lower sweating rate than did the unclipped ones (102.7±15.48 and 48.3±15.48 g/m2/hour, respectively). However, there were no significant differences in rectal temperature, skin temperature and respiratory rate between the two groups of animals. Further study should be done to clarify the consequences of lower sweating rate in clipped animals under hot humid conditions.

Keywords

• hair coat clipping
• physiological responses
• dairy cattle