Confcooperative raises the alarm: extreme heat is affecting livestock farming and milk production

Confcooperative Agro-food raises the alarm over the exceptional heatwave that is putting livestock farms under pressure, risking the disruption of dairy production.

Animals under severe stress

Record temperatures, expected to continue for at least another ten days, are causing severe stress to the animals, resulting in a reduction in milk production of about 10%. “We cannot remember a period with so many consecutive days of such high temperatures. The animals are no longer able to recover during the night; they remain in a state of constant stress and are beginning to develop conditions that are not normally seen on livestock farms,” warns Alessandro Mocellin, president of the Dairy Sector of Confcooperative Agro-food.

Milk production in decline

The consequences are already beginning to affect production. While national production in June was still broadly in line with the same month last year, in the first days of August we are seeing a decline in production of approximately 10% compared with the last week of July. “This decline is also due,” explains Mocellin “to the growing difficulty of guaranteeing sufficient water for livestock farms, especially in the lowland areas and the Po Valley, where the scarcity of water resources has by now become a structural emergency. The problems also concern livestock feed: forage harvesting is below expectations, and a deterioration in quality can also easily be expected.”

This situation, already severely affected by the persistence of high temperatures, is compounded by the impact of production costs. The price of agricultural diesel is continuing to rise, while energy costs are recording increases of more than 15%. In several areas of the country, there are also power cuts due to the sharp increase in consumption.

A complex market situation

On the market front, the situation remains delicate: our country is heading towards record production for the current year of approximately 1,4 million tonnes, an increase of approximately 5% compared with 2025, but demand, explains President Mocellin, “is unable to fully absorb the supply, leading inevitably to price tensions.”

In this situation, the most established protected designations of origin are holding up substantially, explains Mocellin, “as they have more effective tools for dealing with this critical situation: Parmigiano Reggiano continues to stand out for the strength of its market, while Grana Padano is also maintaining a satisfactory balance. The situation is more complex for the other PDO products, which are being affected more severely by the contraction in domestic consumption and lower export capacity. Excluding Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano, the rest of the dairy sector is experiencing a period of severe tension. Even important products such as Asiago have a substantially stable market, but face growing difficulties in marketing the product. Today, it is mainly foreign markets that are supporting sales, but not all PDOs can rely on the same export strength as the two major Italian cheeses.”

This article was translated from the original Italian version with the assistance of artificial intelligence. In case of discrepancies, please refer to the original Italian version.