// BBC BUSINESS NEWS — FINANZA
How cow showers and fans help farmers keep cattle cool
Cows at a dairy farm near Chippenham are doused with cool water to beat the heat
Dairy farmers are installing "cow showers" and giant cooling fans as hotter, drier summers become more common.
Extreme heat has cut milk production by up to 20% and farmers are spending thousands of pounds to keep their cattle cool and protect milk yields.
Sarah Godwin's family have invested £15,000 in a ventilation and sprinkler system at their farm near Chippenham, Wiltshire, to help their animals cope with the "nearly continuous heatwave we are living through".
Professor Nicola Cannon from the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) in Cirencester says drought-hit grassland is also forcing many farmers to use winter feed earlier than planned.
On a dairy farm near Swindon, Sam Woolford presses a switch on the wall of the milking parlour and 10 industrial-scale fans whirr into life.
It blows my hair back, like I'm riding a motorbike at speed.
The cows like it too, it seems, and crucially, they linger in the milking parlour, clearly cool and relaxed.
The system helps keep cattle comfortable during hot weather, but farmers say it cannot eliminate all of the effects of prolonged heat.
"Milk production is down by 20%," Prof Cannon says.