Czech J. Anim. Sci., 2026, 71(1):21-29 | DOI: 10.17221/169/2025-CJAS

The impact of pre-dry-off weather patterns on subsequent lactation udder health in dairy cows, and their comparison with milkability, milk quality and udder health parameters – A pilot studyOriginal Paper

Matúš Gašparík ORCID...1, Jaromír Ducháček ORCID...1, Luděk Stádník ORCID...1, Radim Codl ORCID...1, Iveta Szencziová ORCID...2, Kateřina Cihlářová ORCID...1, Nikola Marešová ORCID...1
1 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Education, J. Selye University in Komárno, Komárno, Slovak Republic

Environmental conditions are known to influence the dairy cow health, with most research focusing on the detrimental effects of heat stress. However, the impact of non-summer weather patterns in temperate climates on udder health carry-over between lactations is not well understood. This pilot study evaluated the effect of various weather factors (temperature, humidity, precipitation, sunshine) during 1-day to 90-day periods before dry-off on udder health in the first month post-calving (represented by somatic cell count, conductivity, lactose, and mastitis incidence) in 199 Holstein cows in Central Europe. The scope of the experiment was limited to one farm and one year of observations. Moreover, we also evaluated milk quality, milkability, and udder health parameters during the same periods before dry-off on udder health after calving. We aimed to identify viable indicators across available automatically collected data from weather stations and milking parlour analysers. We found that the long-term (30- to 90-day) exposure to colder temperatures, high humidity, and low sunshine duration before dry-off was significantly associated with worse udder health after calving. In contrast, short-term weather conditions (1- to 7-day) had no significant effect. Monitored milk quality and udder health parameters showed a significant relation to udder health after calving during the immediate periods before dry-off, while milkability parameters were insignificant. If lactose was decreased or protein content, conductivity, and somatic cell count were elevated during the 1- and 7-day period before dry-off, cows after calving showed worse udder health. These findings identify prolonged cold and damp conditions as a significant environmental risk factor for poor udder health in the subsequent lactation, expanding our understanding beyond the conventional focus on heat stress.

Keywords: climate; Holstein; humidity; mastitis; somatic cell count; temperature

Received: December 3, 2025; Accepted: January 13, 2026; Published: January 27, 2026  Show citation

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Gašparík M, Ducháček J, Stádník L, Codl R, Szencziová I, Cihlářová K, Marešová N. The impact of pre-dry-off weather patterns on subsequent lactation udder health in dairy cows, and their comparison with milkability, milk quality and udder health parameters – A pilot study. Czech J. Anim. Sci. 2026;71(1):21-29. doi: 10.17221/169/2025-CJAS.
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