Sustainable Management of Dairy Cows in Semi-Arid Summers: Additional Early Nighttime Sprinkler Cooling for Heat Stress Mitigation

Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The study's findings have important implications for farmers who may not be aware of the value of intermittent cooling sessions as a sustainable management practice.
Author Response
Reviewer(s)' Comments to Author:
The study's findings have important implications for farmers who may not be aware of the value of intermittent cooling sessions as a sustainable management practice.
Authors Response (AR): We are grateful for your positive feedback and greatly appreciate your endorsement regarding the implications of our study for dairy farmers.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 2 Report
The article addresses a topic of great interest for specialists in the field of cattle breeding. The results can contribute to the development and implementation of better protocols in cow farms. However, the number of animals is quite small, so I think that research should be carried out in depth, on a larger number of animals and possibly over a longer period of time. Minor changes are needed in terms of grammar and the content of the phrases. For example, I would recommend writing the hours as 07:00 instead of 0700.Minor modifications are needed. Please take into consideration the use of transition words, which are intended to give the text more coherence and make it more readable.
Author Response
Please find the pointwise response to the comments in the attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
All comments are in the revised manuscript
Comments for author File: Comments.pdf
The manuscript is very interesting and well written
Author Response
Please find the pointwise response to the comments in the attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Reviewer 4 Report
This manuscript presented some interesting aspects regarding the effect of cooling sessions on cow welfare and focusing on the positive consequences of extra cooling sessions during the early nighttime. The novelty of these findings can have both environmental and productive implications in the field of sustainability, but their presentation can be improved. I think that a comparison of the results of the two treatment groups with those of a control group (continuous showering) could give additional information and more value to your work- At least, I suggest to discuss previous studies evaluating continuous showering in relation with intermittent cooling sessions in more detail, and to compare your and their results in more depth.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
Lines 83-84: Write time in a proper manner here and in the rest of the manuscript.
Lines 108-109: Why did you not reported feed intake data? They could give interesting information even if recorded as group data.
Lines 124-125: Delete this sentence as this information is not essential for article understanding.
RESULTS: Did you analyse the results by statistical analysis to understand if differences and similarities found between the two groups are statistically significant? I cannot see the results of this analysis in the session.
DISCUSSION: I suggest to unify this sections without different paragraphs. Cite all the references in the discussion appropriately (progressive numbers).
Line 257: Where did you reported this kind of information in the results session?
CONCLUSIONS: Replace "have" with "can have".
Author Response
Please find the pointwise response to the comments in the attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx
Round 2
Reviewer 4 Report
The manuscript has been appropriately improved. You can find only some minor suggestions below.
Line 127-128: Delete this sentence "However, due to a miscommunication, there was an error 127 in the blood sampling time, and instead of the afternoon, the blood samples were collected 128 after midnight. The samples" as this information is not essential for article understanding.
Figure 2: Add the explanation of Figure 2 to the text "the data in Figure 2 were statistically analyzed, as indicated by the crossing of the standard error (SE) bars between the two groups, showing a non-significant difference. The analysis was conducted for each time point, and instead of presenting individual p-values, the SE was reported to provide a representation of the variability within each group."
Line 282-283: Cite the references in the discussion appropriately (progressive numbers instead of "Bah et al., 2012b; Honig et al., 2012).
Author Response
Please find the authors' response in the attached file.
Author Response File: Author Response.docx