{"id":45665,"date":"2022-06-22T14:30:22","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T05:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2022\/jun\/22\/india-dairy-farmers-face-searing-heat"},"modified":"2022-06-22T14:30:22","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T05:30:22","slug":"it-felt-like-wringing-a-dry-sponge-indias-dairy-farmers-face-searing-heat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/?p=45665","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It felt like wringing a dry sponge\u2019: India\u2019s dairy farmers face searing heat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Milk and cheese output from  world\u2019s largest producer faces catastrophic decline unless more heat stress resistant cattle are bred<\/p>\n<p>Kailas Ramasamy gently guides his cows into a hangar-sized shed, tethers them to their posts, lays out their fodder and cleans the floor. Then, as he steps out, he flips a switch: ceiling fans begin to blow air on the cattle.<\/p>\n<p>Ramasamy\u2019s dairy farm is an hour outside southern India\u2019s Bengaluru city. Usually known for its moderate weather, the region has witnessed a <a href=\"https:\/\/city.imd.gov.in\/citywx\/extreme\/JUN\/bengaluru2.htm\">sharp rise in temperature<\/a> compared with earlier decades. Elsewhere in India, <a href=\"https:\/\/internal.imd.gov.in\/pages\/heatwave_mausam.php\">temperatures have reached 50C<\/a> (122F) this year.<\/p>\n<p>That is bad news for India\u2019s dairy industry, with heat stress leading to reduced appetite, lower weight gain and decreased fertility in cattle. Rising temperatures could reduce milk output by up to 25% in India\u2019s hotter areas by 2085, according to recent research <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lanplh\/article\/PIIS2542-5196(22)00002-X\/fulltext\">published in the Lancet<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2022\/jun\/22\/india-dairy-farmers-face-searing-heat\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Milk and cheese output from  world\u2019s largest producer faces catastrophic decline unless more heat stress resistant cattle are bredKailas Ramasamy gently guides his cows into a hangar-sized shed, tethers them to their posts, lays out their fodder and cl&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[586,2058,2331,65,455,653,383,59,62,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-welfare","category-cattle","category-climate-crisis","category-environment","category-extreme-weather","category-farming","category-food-drink-industry","category-global-development","category-india","category-south-and-central-asia"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45665"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45692,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45665\/revisions\/45692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eastasianews.net\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}