Sweating Rates and Thermoregulation in Male and Female Bali Cattle

An experiment has been conducted to compare the sweating rate between male and female Bali cattle under tropical conditions in Bali, Indonesia with dry bulb (DB) temperatures varying from 25 to $34.5^{\circ}C$ and relative humidity (RH) 70 to 98%. Rectal temperature (Tr) was significantly different (p < 0.05) between males and females (39.7 vs $39.4^{\circ}C$ compared to 39.2 vs $38.8^{\circ}C$ on weeks 1 and 8 respectively). There were significant effects on RR associated with both $week{\times}sex$ (p < 0.01) and $sex{\times}time$ (p < 0.01) interactions, with values for males higher than females. Skin temperature (Ts) differed significantly between sexes (p <0.05), weeks (p < 0.05) and times (p < 0.01); being lower in females (36 vs $36.4^{\circ}C$). With prolonged working, there were marked increase in RR were recorded after 30 minutes (the overall increase was $12.4^{\circ}C$). Sweating rate (SR) differed significantly between sexes (p < 0.05), weeks (p < 0.01) and times (p < 0.01) during exercise. Females had a lower mean SR ($225.3g/m^2/h$) than males ($238.8g/m^2/h$). With increasing time, the highest SR was achieved after 30 minutes of exercise of $313.3g/m^2/h$.